2026 Aerodiana Cessna 208 crash
Cessna 208B Grand Caravan · Loss of control and possible mid-air break up during route, under investigation
From Captain Renán Elías Olivera International Airport (PIO) to Capitán FAP Renán Elías Olivera Airport, Pisco, Peru
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA26WA268
- 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
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 13 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 13
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Cessna 208B Grand Caravan
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 208
- 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
- OB-2001-P
- Operator
- Aerodiana
- Onboard fatalities
- 13
- Route
- From Captain Renán Elías Olivera International Airport (PIO)To Capitán FAP Renán Elías Olivera Airport, Pisco, Peru
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Unknown or undetermined
- 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 1 August 2026, a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan operated by Aerodiana crashed near Nazca, Peru, while performing a sightseeing flight over the Nazca Lines. The aircraft departed from Capitán FAP Renán Elías Olivera Airport in Pisco, Peru. All 13 people on board the airplane were killed. Peruvian authorities have launched an investigation into the crash.
Accident
The aircraft departed Capitán FAP Renán Elías Olivera Airport, Pisco, Peru, for a sightseeing flight at around 00:10 PET, with two pilots and eleven passengers on board. While cruising, at 13:01 PET, the pilots declared an emergency stating that a loss of control occurred. Soon after contact with the aircraft was lost as it crashed near the Panamericana Sud road, near the village of Pueblo Viejo, in the vicinity of Nazca. Another nearby plane was sent to check the condition of the Aerodiana flight, and its pilot spotted a large plume of smoke coming from the area. Rescue teams stated that the aircraft was completely destroyed and caught fire on impact. All thirteen people on board were killed. The crash site was closed by the police to help with the recovery of bodies and aircraft parts.The bodies of the victims were take to a morgue at Ica Medical Center for identification.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The Peruvian agencies on flight safety CIAA and DGAC, coordinated by the Ministry of Transport and Communications immediately launched an investigation into the accident. The crash site has been subjected to restricted access and investigators are recovering pieces of wreckage. It is currently unknown if the aircraft was carrying any flight recorder. On August 4, Peruvian authorities invited agencies from the United States (the country where the aircraft was manufactured), Italy, Spain and Germany, to take part in the investigation.
Peruvian authorities have stated that weather is currently being considered as the most probable cause of the crash. Strong winds, often exceeding 40 km/h, locally called Paracas winds, hit the region in the days prior to the crash, causing damage to trees and structures, and also bringing large quantities of sand and dust at high altitudes, reducing visibility. Capitán FAP Renán Elías Olivera Airport in Pisco remained closed until July 31, even though high winds were still present at higher altitudes, like the one at which the plane was cruising. Pisco airport was closed again after the crash and Aerodiana rescheduled its service.
Videos published online, by the Peruvian news channel Noticias de Piura, show the airplane descending out of control towards the ground, and breaking up in mid-air. These videos were initially considered by the investigators, but were later dismissed as fake after an analysis of the wreckage.
On 3 August Peruvian aviation authorities forced Aerodiana to suspend all of its operations for the duration of the investigation, to let the investigators verify if the airline was following correctly safety regulations.
Text from the Wikipedia article “2026 Aerodiana Cessna 208 crash” (revision 1375017519, 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: 2026 Aerodiana Cessna 208 crash
- Revision
- 1375017519 · 2026-09-15 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q140812043
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record GAA26WA268
- Event ID
- 20260803203502
- Case number
- GAA26WA268
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "2026 Aerodiana Cessna 208 crash" (page 83845411, revision 1375017519); merged with NTSB case GAA26WA268 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- 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 GAA26WA268
- Operation
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): An Aerodiana Cessna Caravan with eleven passengers on a Nazca Lines sightseeing flight: a sightseeing tour flight. The article: "while performing a sightseeing flight over the Nazca Lines"
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "2026 Aerodiana Cessna 208 crash" and NTSB case GAA26WA268, matched by the same aircraft maker and place and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: coordinates, operator, departure, flight rules, aircraft category, damage. Values present in the bulk record are kept.