Passengers 97 Survivors 0 Operator Dominicana de Aviación Survivor 0 Location Santo Domingo | Crew 5 Date 15 February 1970 Fatalities 102 (all) Passenger count 97 | |
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Summary Engine failure followed by loss of control Site Caribbean Sea near Las Américas Int'l Airport
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Aircraft type McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 Similar LANSA Flight 502, Dan‑Air Flight 1903, Swissair Flight 330, Air Canada Flight 621, 1970 Spantax Convair c | ||
Dominicana Flight 603, also known as the Dominicana de Aviación Santo Domingo DC-9 air disaster, was an international flight that had a fatal accident, which occurred on February 15, 1970 when a Dominicana de Aviación (Dominican Airlines) McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 twin-engine jet airliner crashed shortly after taking off from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic en route to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The crash killed all 102 passengers and crew on board. Four airline employees are believed to have been arrested in connection with the crash.
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Aircraft
The aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 registered HI-177, had been built by McDonnell Douglas the previous year. It had been in service with Dominicana for less than a month when it crashed.
Accident
The jetliner was on an international flight from Las Américas International Airport near Santo Domingo, to San Juan's Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport. It took off at about 6:30pm. Two minutes after departure one of its engines lost power. The aircraft then descended until it hit the sea. There were no survivors among the 97 passengers and five crew members on board.
Notable victims
Several famous passengers were among the dead, including:
Regarding rumors stating that the Puerto Rican salsa orchestra El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico was set to board the flight but did not when one of its members had a bad feeling about the flight and convinced the others not to take it, bandleader Rafael Ithier said that was not true. The band was at Venezuela that day and arrived at Santo Domingo the day after the accident.
Aftermath
Dominicana suspended its operations immediately after the crash; reportedly four of its mechanics were arrested as well. In addition, the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) banned Dominicana aircraft from operating to the United States. The ban was lifted later in the year after Dominicana leased a replacement DC-9 aircraft, to be flown by crews from Spanish airline Iberia.
Dominicana soon resumed full services, including to the United States. The airline flew until 1995 when it suspended services indefinitely; finally officially ceasing operations during 1999.