Passengers 162 Fatalities 174 Aircraft type Boeing 747-283B Number of deaths 174 Locations Mejorada del Campo, Spain | Crew 23 Survivors 11 Date 27 November 1983 Injuries (nonfatal) 8 | |
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Site Mejorada del Campo, Madrid, Spain Summary Controlled flight into terrain Destinations El Dorado International Airport, Bogotá, Colombia Similar Madrid runway disaster, Gulf Air Flight 771, Aeroflot Flight 5463, Aeroflot Flight 601, TAAG Angola Airlines Fl | ||
Avianca Flight 011, registration HK-2910X (formerly LN-RNA), was a Boeing 747-283B on an international scheduled passenger flight from Frankfurt via Paris, Madrid, and Caracas to Bogotá that crashed on November 27, 1983.
The Frankfurt-Paris segment on this day had been cancelled by Avianca. As a result, the passengers who were to board Avianca flight 011 in Frankfurt had been placed on a Lufthansa flight to Paris. Because they had to wait for these passengers to land, the flight was delayed departing Paris. At 23:31 the airplane started descent to Madrid-Barajas Airport. During the descent, the airplane touched a hill, then a second one, before hitting the ground and disintegrating. All 19 crew members, as well as 162 out of 173 passengers, were killed. The cause of the accident was judged to be pilot error, having incorrectly determined the position of the plane. As of 2013, Avianca Flight 011 remains the second-deadliest aviation accident in Spanish territory behind the Tenerife airport disaster. Today, Avianca still operates Flight 011, a daily flight from Madrid to Bogota, using a Boeing 787–8.