Aerolíneas Argentinas Flight 737
Avro 748 · Explosive decompression after structural failure
From Resistencia International Airport (RES) to Monte Caseros Airport, Argentina
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
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 33
- 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
Avro 748
- Aircraft type
- Avro 748
- 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
- LV-HHB
- Operator
- Aerolíneas Argentinas
- Onboard fatalities
- 1
- Route
- From Resistencia International Airport (RES)To Monte Caseros Airport, Argentina
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Aircraft › Aircraft handling/service
- Organizational issues › Development
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
Aerolíneas Argentinas Flight 737 (flight number: AR737) was a scheduled domestic flight of the state-owned Argentine airline Aerolíneas Argentinas from Resistencia to Monte Caseros. On 30 August 1962 an incident occurred on this flight involving an Avro 748, in which a passenger door was torn off in flight and one person was killed. It was the first fatal incident involving an aircraft of this type.
Accident sequence
The aircraft took off from Resistencia Airport on a domestic flight to Buenos Aires-Aeroparque (AEP), with a stopover planned in Monte Caseros (MCS). About 20 minutes after takeoff, at an altitude of 3450 metres, an explosive decompression occurred when the rear left passenger door was torn off. A flight attendant was sucked out of the aircraft through the opening. The aircraft suffered severe damage to both rear pressure bulkheads as well as the left forward pressure bulkhead. The captain, who was flying the aircraft, decided to fly back to Resistencia, reduced thrust and airspeed and was able to land the aircraft safely.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The failure of the door was due to a fault in the locking system. The door's safety mechanism had not been maintained correctly. This was because manufacturer's instructions for maintaining the door lock mechanism were not available. Because of the vulnerable design of the door lock mechanism and the limited experience in operating the aircraft type, instructions for periodic inspection of the system would have been necessary to ensure proper operation.
In addition, the method of checking whether the middle and lower door lock lugs were engaged was not particularly reliable.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Aerolíneas-Argentinas-Flug 737” (revision 202587823, 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: Aerolíneas-Argentinas-Flug 737
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 202587823 · 2020-08-08 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q65226955
- 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 "Aerolíneas-Argentinas-Flug 737" (page 10755117, revision 202587823), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- 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.