FLIGHT FINDINGSAVIATION OCCURRENCE MAP
Back to map

2019 Laser Aéreo Douglas DC-3 crash

9 Mar 2019 · Finca La Bendición, San Martín, Meta, Colombia

Latinoamericana de Servicios Aéreo Douglas DC-3 · Crashed onto ground after one of the engines could not be feathered due to mechanical failure and inadequate maintenance

From Jorge E. Gonzalez Torres Airport (SJE) to Vanguardia Airport (VVC)

Report a problem

Event

NTSB case
ERA19WA121
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
InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
Preliminary · GRIAA interim report 
Event fatalities
14 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
0
Occupants
14
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
0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
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
Unknown
WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
Unknown

Douglas DC-3

Aircraft type
Douglas DC-3
Category
Airplane
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-2494
Onboard fatalities
14
Route
From Jorge E. Gonzalez Torres Airport (SJE)To Vanguardia Airport (VVC)
Aircraft age
Not recorded
Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
Non-U.S., Commercial
Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
En route · cruise
Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
Loss of engine power (partial)
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Destroyed

Cause areas

No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.

Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.

From the Wikipedia article

On 9 March 2019, a Douglas DC-3 operated by Latinoamericana de Servicios Aéreo (Laser Aéreo) crashed near San Carlos de Guaroa, Colombia. The plane was on a flight from Jorge Enrique González Torres Airport, San José del Guaviare to La Vanguardia Airport, Villavicencio. All 14 people on board were killed, including the mayor of Taraira. The crew were attempting to land at Villavicencio and had just declared an emergency.

Crash

As the aircraft was cruising, the left engine suffered a failure, which disabled the oil system in that engine. The crew then radioed in a mayday and diverted to La Rinconada, a plantation. While they were descending, the crew could not feather the engine which was required in an engine failure, thus they began to lose speed as the engine windmilled, creating drag. At 10:31 am local time, the crew made their final transmission, stating they had the runway in sight. Ground witnesses in the area said they saw the aircraft doing several turns while descending. The aircraft then crashed near a road, coming to rest just over the road, on fire. Plantation workers rushed to help, but they found no survivors.

Text from the Wikipedia article “2019 Laser Aéreo Douglas DC-3 crash” (revision 1345554555, 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

NTSB narrative

The government of Colombia has notified the NTSB of an accident involving a DOUGLAS DC3 airplane that occurred on March 09, 2019. The NTSB has appointed a U.S. Accredited Representative to assist the government of Colombia's investigation under the provisions of ICAO Annex 13.All investigative information will be released by the government of Colombia.

Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset

Sources

Wikipedia article: 2019 Laser Aéreo Douglas DC-3 crash
Article
2019 Laser Aéreo Douglas DC-3 crash
Revision
1345554555 · 2026-03-26 · retrieved 2026-09-18
Wikidata
Q62015761
Licence
Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record ERA19WA121
Event ID
20190310X83114
Case number
ERA19WA121
Dataset
full-current
Source SHA-256
5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
Record
Wikipedia article "2019 Laser Aéreo Douglas DC-3 crash" (page 60198473, revision 1345554555); merged with NTSB case ERA19WA121 (events / aircraft)
Date
Wikipedia infobox: date; matches the Grupo de Investigación de Accidentes (GRIAA), Aeronáutica Civil de Colombia (now Dirección Técnica de Investigación de Accidentes, DIACC) interim report
Place and country
Wikipedia infobox: site
Map position
Wikipedia: 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); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record ERA19WA121
Operation
not stated in the Wikipedia article's infobox or opening paragraph
Fatalities
Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities; matches the Grupo de Investigación de Accidentes (GRIAA), Aeronáutica Civil de Colombia (now Dirección Técnica de Investigación de Accidentes, DIACC) interim report
Ground fatalities
Grupo de Investigación de Accidentes (GRIAA), Aeronáutica Civil de Colombia (now Dirección Técnica de Investigación de Accidentes, DIACC) interim report
Summary
Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
  • One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "2019 Laser Aéreo Douglas DC-3 crash" and NTSB case ERA19WA121, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
  • No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.
  • Checked against the Grupo de Investigación de Accidentes (GRIAA), Aeronáutica Civil de Colombia (now Dirección Técnica de Investigación de Accidentes, DIACC) interim report on 2026-09-18. The report states the same date, fatalities, registration, operator, departure, destination and damage. Taken from the report: ground fatalities. Not checked: place, crash-site coordinates, flight number, aircraft type and type of operation.