Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela Flight 109
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 · Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error
From La Chinita International Airport (MAR) to Miguel Urdaneta Fernández Airport (STB)
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
- 45 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 45
- 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
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32
- Flight
- CW109
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas DC-9
- 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
- YV-23C
- Operator
- Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela
- Onboard fatalities
- 45
- Route
- From La Chinita International Airport (MAR)To Miguel Urdaneta Fernández Airport (STB)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Psychological
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
Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela Flight 109 was a short-haul flight from La Chinita International Airport in Maracaibo, Venezuela to Santa Barbara Ed-L Delicias Airport that crashed on March 5, 1991.
Accident
Flight 109 took off from La Chinita International Airport with 45 passengers and crew. Several minutes later, the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 crashed on the side of a foggy mountain near "The Guillotine" near La Valesa in the La Aguada sector of the Páramo Los Torres and burst into flames. All 45 people on board died.
Investigation and cause
Cause
An investigation into the accident found that the cause of the crash was pilot error. The pilots inadvertently entered the wrong radial into their navigation system and went off course. Because of fog in the area, the pilots did not know they were on a collision course with the mountain.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela Flight 109” (revision 1351243712, 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: Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela Flight 109
- Revision
- 1351243712 · 2026-04-26 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q4688400
- 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 "Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela Flight 109" (page 25906390, revision 1351243712)
- 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
- airline flight number in the infobox
- 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.