| Summary Engine failure Crew 12 Date 3 January 1987 Operator Varig | Passengers 39 Fatalities 50 Number of deaths 50 Location Côte d’Ivoire | |
 | ||
| Site Near Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire Survivors 1 (initially 2, one passenger died four days later) Destination Rio de Janeiro–Galeão International Airport Survivor 1 (initially 2, one passenger died four days later) Similar Aeroflot Flight 505, Varig Flight 967, Varig Flight 820, Thai Airways Flight 365, Varig Airlines Flight 837 | ||
Varig Flight 797 was a flight from Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On 3 January 1987 the Boeing 707-320C used for the route crashed on the terrain, killing all 12 crew members and 38 of 39 passengers.
When departing Abidjan the aircraft developed problems with its left (No. 1) engine. While returning the aircraft crashed into the jungle 18 km from the airport. The crash site was a rubber plantation.
Four days after the disaster, Ahmad Wansa, a British citizen who was injured in the crash, died on board a Swiss aircraft while arriving in Paris; he was going to be transferred to a burn unit in a Paris suburb. The sole remaining survivor, identified as Ivory Coast University Prof. Neuba Yessoh, had burns on less than 20 percent of his body. Yessoh died of heart attack on 4 March 2015 at the age of 72.
Nationalities of the persons on board are as follows: