2008 Conviasa Boeing 737 crash
Boeing 737-291 Advanced · Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error
From Maiquetía Simón Bolívar International Airport (CCS) to Cotopaxi International Airport (LTX)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA08WA096
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 3 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 3
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- 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
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Boeing 737-291 Advanced
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 737
- 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
- YV102T
- Operator
- Conviasa
- Onboard fatalities
- 3
- Route
- From Maiquetía Simón Bolívar International Airport (CCS)To Cotopaxi International Airport (LTX)
- 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
- Not recorded
- 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
- Not recorded
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
- Organizational issues › Management
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
A Conviasa Boeing 737-200 (registered as YV102T) ferry flight from Maiquetia, Venezuela to Latacunga, Ecuador crashed into Illiniza Volcano. The aircraft had been stored at Caracas and was being ferried to a new owner. There were three crew on board with no passengers. There were no survivors.
Investigation and cause
Investigation and final report
The accident was investigated by the Dirección General de Aviación Civil (DGAC) of Ecuador. The investigation spanned 622 days following the incident and the final report was released on May 14, 2010. The findings of the report were as follows (translated from Spanish):
"The Accident Investigation Board judges that the probable cause of this accident was non-observance by the flight crew of the technical procedures, configuration, speed and bank angle of the aircraft required to complete the initial turn of Instrument Approach Procedure Number 4 published in the Ecuador Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP) for Latacunga airport, a failure that placed the aircraft outside of the protected area (published pattern), bringing it into high elevation mountainous terrain."
The report also listed the crew's ignorance of the area surrounding the approach path and lack of airline documentation and procedures governing the conduct of flights to non-scheduled and special airports.
Text from the Wikipedia article “2008 Conviasa Boeing 737 crash” (revision 1363395947, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
NTSB narrative
On Aug 30, 2008, at approximately 2102 local time, a B737-200, Venezuelan registry YV-102T, crashed in high terrain on approach to Latacunga, Ecuador. The flight had departed Caracas Venezuela, Maiquetia airport. The airplane was formerly operated by Conviasa airlines of Venezuela, and was being ferried for maintenance prior to transfer to a new owner. The 2 pilots and one crew chief were fatally injured. The crew reported on the ILS approach at 13,000 feet, but then did not respond to further ATC transmissions.
The wreckage was located at the 12,000 foot level of the Illinzia volcano, about 15 nm northwest of Latacunga.
This investigation is being conducted by the Ecuadoran DGAC. A U.S. Accredited Representative has been assigned to assist the DGAC of Ecuador in their investigation. All inquiries concerning this investigation should be directed to:
Dirección General de Aviación Civil Departamento de Seguridad de Vuelo Buenos Aires 149 y Av. 10 de Agosto Casilla 2077 Quito Ecuador
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: 2008 Conviasa Boeing 737 crash
- Revision
- 1363395947 · 2026-07-09 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q4610813
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA08WA096
- Event ID
- 20081003X16309
- Case number
- DCA08WA096
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "2008 Conviasa Boeing 737 crash" (page 19202797, revision 1363395947); merged with NTSB case DCA08WA096 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record DCA08WA096
- Operation
- operator is an airline according to Wikidata
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "2008 Conviasa Boeing 737 crash" and NTSB case DCA08WA096, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.