Aeroservicios Ecuatorianos Flight 767-103
Aeroservicios Ecuatorianos (AECA) Douglas DC-8-55F · Failed take-off followed by runway excursion and crash due to pilot error
From Miami International Airport (MIA) to José Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport (GYE)
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
- 53 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 49
- Occupants
- 4
- 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
Douglas DC-8-55F
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-8
- 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
- HC-BKN
- Onboard fatalities
- 4
- Route
- From Miami International Airport (MIA)To José Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport (GYE)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- 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
Aeroservicios Ecuatorianos Flight 767-103 was a scheduled freight flight from Miami in the United States, to Guayaquil, Ecuador, with an intermediate stop in the Ecuadorian capital of Quito. On 18 September 1984, the flight was being operated by a Douglas DC-8-55F jet (registered in Ecuador as HC-BKN). It failed to get airborne during the takeoff run at Quito Airport, hit an Instrument Landing System (ILS) antenna at the end of the runway, and then struck several houses. All four crew and 49 people on the ground were killed.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
An investigation concluded that the crew failed to notice that the horizontal stabiliser was set at 0.5 degrees nose up when it should have been 8 degrees nose up, this increased the time and distance needed by the aircraft to rotate and the conclusion was the aircraft did not have enough runway length to get airborne. A number of contributory factors were also involved:
The crew were involved in a labor dispute which caused them to leave in haste; the crew's state of mind may have been a contributing factor and it is assumed that they did not concentrate on all aspects of the aircraft's operation.
Issues with the departure clearance were also a factor; it was done incorrectly in that the maximum take-off weight for the runway and prevailing conditions, the distribution of the load and centre of gravity were not determined.
The investigation made eight safety recommendations.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Aeroservicios Ecuatorianos Flight 767-103” (revision 1359588855, 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: Aeroservicios Ecuatorianos Flight 767-103
- Revision
- 1359588855 · 2026-06-16 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q16960383
- 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 "Aeroservicios Ecuatorianos Flight 767-103" (page 41410044, revision 1359588855)
- 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: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: ground fatalities
- 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.