Viasa Flight 897 was an international scheduled Rome– Madrid–

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

– Santa Maria–

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

passenger service that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Portugal on 30 May 1961, shortly after takeoff from Portela Airport. There were no survivors among the 61 occupants of the aircraft.

Aircraft

Named ''

Fridtjof Nansen Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen (; 10 October 186113 May 1930) was a Norwegian polymath and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He gained prominence at various points in his life as an explorer, scientist, diplomat, and humanitarian. He led the team t ...

'', the aircraft involved in the accident was a Douglas DC-8-53, registration PH-DCL, owned by KLM and operated on Viasa's behalf. With constructor's number 45615/131, the airframe was the newest one of the type in KLM's fleet at the time the accident took place; it had accumulated 209 flight hours.

Description

The crash of Viasa Flight 897 occurred on the third leg of a trip that originated in

Rome, Italy , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (Romulus and Remus, legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg ...

, and was scheduled to conclude in Caracas, Venezuela. Intermediate stops were to be made in Madrid, Spain, Lisbon, and on Santa Maria Island. At the time the airliner lifted off from Lisbon at 01:15 UTC, the nighttime sky had a cloud base of . A few minutes after take off the DC-8 entered a spiral dive to the left shortly after sending two short messages to Air Traffic Control. The pilot over-corrected to the right and the aircraft struck the sea with a pitch angle of approximately 25° nose down.

Investigation

The cause for the crash of Viasa Flight 897 was never determined by either Portuguese or Dutch authorities. The official report out of Portugal concluded "Notwithstanding a very thorough, time-consuming investigation, in which many authorities and experts co-operated, it was not possible to establish a probable cause of the accident." The Netherlands, as state of registry for the aircraft, commented: "Though there are no direct indications in this respect, the Board regards it as possible that the accident was due to the pilot or pilots being misled by instrument failure, in particular of the artificial horizon, or to the pilot having been distracted, so that a serious deviation from the normal flight path was not discovered in time."

Legacy

At the time it occurred, Flight 897 was the third fatal crash of a big jetliner since they were introduced into service in 1958. It was the worst civilian aviation incident ever to take place in Portugal until the crash of TAP Air Portugal Flight 425 in 1977.

Notes

References

External links

Final reportArchive
-

GPIAA The Office for the Prevention and Investigation of Accidents in Civil Aviation and Rail (''Gabinete de Prevenção e Investição de Acidentes com Aeronaves e de Acidentes Ferroviários'', GPIAAF, "Office of Prevention and Investigation of Aircraf ...

{{coord missing, Portugal 897 Aviation accidents and incidents in 1961 Aviation accidents and incidents in Portugal Airliner accidents and incidents with an unknown cause Accidents and incidents involving the Douglas DC-8 1961 in Portugal May 1961 events in Europe 1961 disasters in Portugal