Avianca Flight 203
Boeing 727-21 · In-flight breakup due to terrorist bombing
From El Dorado International Airport (BOG) to Alfonso Bonilla Aragon International Airport (CLO)
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
- 110 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 3
- Occupants
- 107
- 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
Boeing 727-21
- Flight
- AV203
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 727
- 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
- HK-1803
- Operator
- Avianca
- Onboard fatalities
- 107
- Route
- From El Dorado International Airport (BOG)To Alfonso Bonilla Aragon International Airport (CLO)
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Avianca Flight 203 was a Colombian domestic passenger flight from El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá to Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport in Cali, Colombia of a Boeing 727. It was destroyed by a bomb over the municipality of Soacha on November 27, 1989. All 107 people on board as well as three people on the ground were killed. The bombing had been ordered by Medellín's drug cartel.
Flight
Flight 203 took off as scheduled at 07:13. Five minutes into the flight, at a speed of 794 km/h and an altitude of 13000 ft, an explosive charge detonated, causing fuel vapors in the empty central fuel tank to ignite. Eyewitnesses on the ground reported seeing fire erupt out of the right side of the aircraft's fuselage. A second blast ripped the airliner apart; the nose section separated from the tail section, which went down in flames. The wreckage was scattered in a 3 mi radius around the town of Soacha. All 107 people on board were killed, as well as three people on the ground who were hit by falling debris.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Avianca Flight 203” (revision 1368377731, 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: Avianca Flight 203
- Article
- Avianca Flight 203
- Revision
- 1368377731 · 2026-08-08 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q2697152
- 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 "Avianca Flight 203" (page 466756, revision 1368377731)
- 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: 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.