Mexicana de Aviación Flight 704

On 4 June 1969, Mexicana de Aviación Flight 704, a Boeing 727 airliner registered XA-SEL, crashed near El Carmen, some 20 miles north of the city of Monterrey, Nuevo León. All 79 people on board were killed.

Accident

Flight MX704 departed Mexico City, bound for Monterrey, at 07:02 local time. The flight was uneventful until approach, when the crew began descending at a vertical speed of 1500–1600 ft / min (460–490 m / min) at an airspeed of 250 knots. During its approach to Del Norte International Airport, the crew contacted the landing controller and requested weather conditions and traffic information. The dispatcher reported that the weather over the airport was cloudy with a lower boundary of 500 feet (150 m) with haze, light raining, and no other aircraft in the airport zone. The crew asked if the radio beacon at Ciénega de Flores was operating, and received word that it was not functioning due to an electrical power outage. Flight 704 then reported that, for some reason, they received a signal similar to the signal from this beacon. The crew then reported the airport in sight, and began to carry out the final approach. This was the last transmission from the aircraft.

The aircraft ended up destroyed in the Cerro del Fraile mountain range, killing all 79 people on board. The crash was the deadliest aviation accident on Mexican soil until Mexicana Flight 940, another Boeing 727, crashed on 31 March 1986, killing all 167 people on board.