Aerolíneas Argentinas Flight 322
de Havilland DH-106 Comet 4 · Pilot error
From Ezeiza International Airport - Ministro Pistarini (EZE) to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)
Event
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 52 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- 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
- 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
- Airline
de Havilland DH-106 Comet 4
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DH-106
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- 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
- LV-AHR
- Operator
- Aerolíneas Argentinas
- Onboard fatalities
- 52
- Route
- From Ezeiza International Airport - Ministro Pistarini (EZE)To John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Miscellaneous
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
Aerolíneas Argentinas Flight 322 was a scheduled Buenos Aires–São Paulo–Port of Spain–New York City international passenger service, operated with a Comet 4, registration LV-AHR, that crashed during climbout on the early stages of its second leg, when it collided with tree tops shortly after takeoff from Viracopos-Campinas International Airport on 23 November 1961. All 52 on board, including 40 passengers, were killed in the crash.
Flight history
The jetliner arrived from Buenos Aires, Argentina and landed at Viracopos-Campinas International Airport, 62 mi north of São Paulo, as an intermediate stop. It took off at 05:38, bound for Piarco International Airport, Trinidad, with New York City as its final destination. After reaching an altitude of about 100 m, the aircraft lost altitude, collided with eucalyptus trees and crashed into the ground; its fuel tanks exploded on impact. All 52 people on board were killed in the disaster.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The accident was investigated by the Brazilian government with participation from the government of Argentina, the state of registry of the accident aircraft.
The weather conditions at the time of the accident were "dark night due to 7/8 (broken) stratocumulus at 400 m and to 8/8 coverage (overcast) by altostratus at 2100 m." According to the Brazilian Air Ministry, the weather conditions did not contribute to the accident.
The investigation revealed that the first officer was seated in the left seat of the flight deck, which the investigators saw as an indication that he was receiving flight instruction from the captain during the accident flight.
The Brazilian Air Ministry determined the following Probable Cause:
It was presumed that the co-pilot was under flight instruction. If such was the case, the instructor, who was pilot-in-command, may have failed to brief or supervise the co-pilot properly.
The Argentinian government issued the following statement:
Argentina has determined, in the light of information it has gathered, that the cause of the accident was: "Failure to operate under IFR during a takeoff by night in weather conditions requiring IFR operation and failure to follow the climb procedure for this type of aircraft; a contributory cause was the lack of vigilance by the pilot-in-command during the operations."
Text from the Wikipedia article “Aerolíneas Argentinas Flight 322” (revision 1339318358, 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
Sources
Wikipedia article: Aerolíneas Argentinas Flight 322
- Revision
- 1339318358 · 2026-02-19 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q926160
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Aerolíneas Argentinas Flight 322" (page 23085328, revision 1339318358)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- 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)
- Operation
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.