Avianca Flight 671

Avianca Flight 671, registration HK-177, was a Lockheed Constellation that crashed and burned on landing at Montego Bay Airport, Montego Bay, Jamaica, on 21 January 1960. The flight had originated at Miami International Airport, Florida. The aircraft operating the flight was a Lockheed L-1049E Super Constellation used by Avianca for its Bogotá-Montego Bay routes. Thirty-seven of the 46 passengers and crew aboard were killed. It was and remains the worst accident in Jamaican aviation history.

Background

The aircraft itself was a Lockheed Constellation owned by Avianca, a company affiliated with Pan Am. It had 46 passengers on board and 7 crew. Four passengers, tired of waiting for repairs, left the plane while it disembarked in Miami.

The disaster was the fourth major air crash in a span of four days; a Vickers Viscount crashed into a farm in Charles City County, Virginia on January 18 and killed 50, a Sud Aviation Caravelle operated by Scandinavian Airlines crashed on January 19 and killed 42, and a Martin P4M Mercator crashed into Mount Karanfil the same day, killing all 16 Navy soldiers.

Accident

The accident happened at about 02:24 local time, and the weather was overcast with intermittent rain. On landing, the plane made a heavy touchdown, bounced, and landed back on the runway, then skidded down the runway in flames. It came to rest upside down, 1900 feet from the runway threshold and 200 feet to the left thereof.