Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 707 crash in Rome
Boeing 707-360C · Runway excursion due to incorrect weight calculations
From Rome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO) to Addis Ababa Bole International Airport (ADD)
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
- 5 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- 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 707-360C
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 707
- 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
- ET-ACD
- Operator
- Ethiopian Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 5
- Route
- From Rome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)To Addis Ababa Bole International Airport (ADD)
Approximate · Estimated position: Fiumicino, the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
The crash of a Boeing 707-360C occurred on 19 November 1977, when an Ethiopian Airlines cargo aircraft crashed shortly after take-off, killing all five occupants of the aircraft.
Accident sequence
The cargo flight was to go from Rome-Fiumicino Airport to Asmara Airport (then Ethiopia, today Eritrea). The crew was assigned runway 25 for departure. After the aircraft had lifted off following an unusually long take-off run, it barely gained any height. At 04:22 local time and 220 metres beyond the end of the runway in a westerly direction, the Boeing clipped treetops at a height of seven to eight metres, crashed to the ground 280 metres further on and caught fire.
Cause of the accident
According to reports, the accident occurred due to overloading. The units of measurement are said to have been confused in the weight calculations. Instead of 19,000 Anglo-American pounds (approx. 8600 kilograms), which were used for calculating the take-off and lift-off speed, the aircraft had 19,000 kilograms loaded.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Absturz einer Boeing 707 der Ethiopian Airlines in Rom” (revision 251248585, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Absturz einer Boeing 707 der Ethiopian Airlines in Rom
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 251248585 · 2024-12-14 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q65226912
- 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
- de Wikipedia article "Absturz einer Boeing 707 der Ethiopian Airlines in Rom" (page 10732076, revision 251248585), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata 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
- operator named as an airline in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.