ERA17WA230 · Gulfstream G1159A
Servicio Autonomo de Transporte Aereo (SATA) Gulfstream G1159A · Accident: flight control system malfunction/failure en route
From Del Caribe Santiago Mariño International Airport (SVMG) to Maiquetía Simón Bolívar International Airport (SVMI)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's registration. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA17WA230
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- API-reported fatalities
- 9 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Gulfstream G1159A
- Aircraft type
- Gulfstream G1159
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- YV2896 Possible conflict
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Del Caribe Santiago Mariño International Airport (SVMG), NuevaTo Maiquetía Simón Bolívar International Airport (SVMI), Vargas
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route · cruise
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Flight control system malfunction/failure
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
On July 4, 2017, about 1745 coordinated universal time (UTC), a Gulfstream 1159A, Venezuela registration YV2895, descended into the Caribbean Sea northwest of Nueva Esparta, Venezuela, and was presumed to be destroyed. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed in the area and an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan was filed for the foreign, non-commercial personal flight from Margarita Del Caribe International Airport (SVMG), Nueva Esparta, Venezuela, to Maiquetia Simon Bolivar International Airport (SVMI), Vargas, Venezuela. Two occupants were recovered and were fatally injured while the remaining 7 occupants were not recovered and were presumed to be fatally injured. The flight originated from SVMG about 1725 UTC.According to preliminary information, after takeoff the airplane proceeded in a west-northwesterly heading and climbed to 20,000 ft. During cruise flight, a flight crewmember advised the controller of a malfunction of the hydraulic system, and descended to 16,000 ft. A flight crewmember then advised the controller of a discrepancy with the flight controls. While flying at 3,000 ft, radio contact was lost. A search for the aircraft and occupants was initiated, but the main wreckage has not been recovered.
The investigation is under the jurisdiction of the government of Venezuela. Further information pertaining to this accident may be obtained from:
General Directorate for Research and Prevention of Air Accidents Av. Francisco de Miranda Torre MTT, Piso 20 Chacao, Caracas 1060 Venezuela Tel.: (58) 212-274-5590 / 5464, (58) 426-518-6717 / 414-219-2717 AFTN: SVCCLALX Telex: 24626 MTCAC VC Cable: DIGETRAERO-CARACAS Website: www.mpptaa.gob.ve
This report is for informational purposes only, and contains only information released by or obtained for the Government of Venezuela.
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA17WA230
- Event ID
- 20170705X45040
- Case number
- ERA17WA230
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: c83d6df3af13b0e0c100fc737cbf3f61e49b12977f24a9fe850f8a4bb4ead839; retrieved 2026-09-15T06:05:36.394Z.