Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 205 was a regularly scheduled domestic

Austral Líneas Aéreas Cielos del Sur S.A., operating as Austral Líneas Aéreas, more commonly known by its shortened name Austral, was a domestic airline of Argentina, the sister company of Aerolíneas Argentinas. It was the second-largest domestic scheduled airline ...

flight operating a route between Buenos Aires and

Mar del Plata Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" is a s ...

in Argentina that crashed after encountering poor weather conditions during landing on 16 January 1959, killing 51 of the 52 passengers and crew on board. At the time, the crash was the second-worst accident in Argentine aviation history and is currently the sixth-worst involving a

Curtiss C-46 Commando The Curtiss C-46 Commando is a twin-engine transport aircraft derived from the Curtiss CW-20 pressurised high-altitude airliner design. Early press reports used the name "Condor III" but the Commando name was in use by early 1942 in company pub ...

Accident

The

, registration LV-GED, took off from Buenos Aires at 19:50 local time with five crew members and 47 passengers aboard for an approximately 250-mile flight to

. The aircraft had already been delayed for 35 minutes due to poor weather conditions at its destination. The flight was uneventful and Flight 205 was cleared for landing by controllers on runway 12 as it neared

Mar Del Plata Airport Ástor Piazzolla International Airport ( es, link=no, Aeropuerto Internacional de Mar del Plata "Ástor Piazzolla", ), also known as Mar del Plata Airport, is an airport serving Mar del Plata, an Atlantic coastal city in the Buenos Aires Provinc ...

. At the time the airport's non-directional beacon (NDB) was not functional, contributing to issues with navigation. As the aircraft passed over the runway at an altitude of , it overshot the runway. Missing the approach, the captain decided to commence a go-around. However, in bad visibility with poor airport lighting, the C-46

stalled ''Stalled'' is a 2013 British zombie comedy film directed by Christian James. It stars Dan Palmer, who also wrote the screenplay, as a man confined to a bathroom stall after zombies attack. Produced by Richard Kerrigan and Daniel Pickering, the f ...

and crashed into the sea about away from the airport at 21:40 local time. All members of the crew were killed and the only survivor of the 47 passengers aboard the crash was seriously injured, still he managed to swim until the coast.

Causes

An investigation of the crash placed most of the blame for the accident on the crew. The pilot was not familiar with the airspace and had miscalculated his instrument approach, resulting in a

missed approach Missed approach is a procedure followed by a pilot when an instrument approach cannot be completed to a full-stop landing. The instructions for the missed approach may be assigned by air traffic control (ATC) prior to the clearance for the approac ...

. In addition, the crew's mental state contributed to the subsequent stall and loss of control that caused the aircraft to crash. Contributing factors were the non-functioning radio beacon and the poor visibility which made discerning the airport's lights and runway difficult.

References

Aviation accidents and incidents in 1959 Aviation accidents and incidents in Argentina 1959 in Argentina Accidents and incidents involving the Curtiss-Wright C-46 Commando January 1959 events in South America {{Aviation-accident-stub

Accident

Causes

See also

References