FLIGHT FINDINGSAVIATION OCCURRENCE MAP
Back to map

VASP Flight 012

23 Aug 1973 · Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Viação Aérea São Paulo NAMC YS-11A-211 · Runway excursion after rejected takeoff

From Santos Dumont Airport (SDU) to Pampulha - Carlos Drummond de Andrade Airport (PLU)

Report a problem

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
8 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
Unknown
Survivors
57
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

NAMC YS-11A-211

Aircraft type
Namc YS-11
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
PP-SMJ
Onboard fatalities
8
Route
From Santos Dumont Airport (SDU)To Pampulha - Carlos Drummond de Andrade Airport (PLU)

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

From the Wikipedia article

VASP Flight 012 (flight number: VP012) was a scheduled domestic flight of the airline Viação Aérea São Paulo from Rio de Janeiro-Santos Dumont Airport to Belo Horizonte Airport. On 23 August 1973, on this flight, a NAMC YS-11 crashed into Guanabara Bay after a rejected take-off, killing eight people on board.

Accident sequence

During the aircraft's take-off run, a momentary loss of power occurred 8 knots (approx. 15 km/h) before reaching decision speed. The turbine exhaust temperature indicator then rose to the maximum value. The captain immediately initiated a rejected take-off. He pulled back the thrust, pressed the brake pedal fully down and activated the thrust reversers.

Since the braking performance was insufficient despite all the measures taken, the emergency brakes were activated. The emergency brake worked only on the right main landing gear. When the captain realised 80 metres before the end of the runway that an overrun was imminent, he thereupon retracted the landing gear, so that the aircraft struck the runway with its fuselage and continued skidding on it. The overrun could nevertheless not be prevented; the aircraft plunged onto the rocks and into the water of Guanabara Bay 100 metres beyond the end of the runway.

Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “VASP-Flug 012” (revision 240216428, 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: VASP-Flug 012
Article
VASP-Flug 012
Translation
Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
Revision
240216428 · 2023-12-15 · retrieved 2026-09-19
Wikidata
Q65246483
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 "VASP-Flug 012" (page 10749987, revision 240216428), translated into English with AI assistance
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: 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.