1976 Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales accident
Avro 748 · The Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales crash occurred on 14 April 1976
From Rincon De Los Sauces Airport (RDS) to Cutral 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
- 34 · 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
- General aviation
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
- Onboard fatalities
- 34
- Route
- From Rincon De Los Sauces Airport (RDS)To Cutral Airport, Argentina
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft structures
- Organizational issues › Development
- Aircraft › Aircraft handling/service
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
The Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales crash occurred on 14 April 1976. On that day, on a flight of the Argentine state oil company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales from Rincón de los Sauces to Cutral-Có, an Avro 748 crashed after a wing had broken off in flight. All 34 people on board were killed in the accident.
Flight sequence
On the day of the accident, the Avro 748 Ciudad de Corrientes was used to fly out personnel of the state oil company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF). First a flight was carried out from Cutral-Có to Rincón de Los Sauces, which took off at 14:00 and, after a flight without any particular anomalies, landed at its destination 40 minutes later. At 15:55 the aircraft took off for the return flight to Cutral-Có. On board were 31 passengers and 3 crew members.
Accident sequence
At 16:23 the crew contacted air traffic control in Cutral-Có, requested the weather data and asked for landing clearance with an estimated arrival at 16:33. At an altitude of about 4000 feet, the starboard wing of the aircraft then suddenly broke off, followed by the starboard elevator. The aircraft entered a downward spiral and crashed to the ground. All 34 people on board were killed.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The cause of the accident was determined to be a structural failure in the form of the right wing breaking off during an otherwise normal flight. The structural failure was said to have occurred between the third and twelfth longitudinal frame of the wing and in the area of the outer rib of the engine mounting.
It was found that the material from which the wings were made met the load requirements. Rather, the fatigue cracks were due to the concentration of stress on the fracture point, which resulted from the design of the wings. For the same reason, the damage reached a critical extent earlier than expected. The cracks were said to have remained undetected and ultimately led to the critical situation, which was because the manufacturer's maintenance instructions for the affected assembly were too imprecise, so that the operator had not detected the crack formation in time.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall der Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales 1976” (revision 243409655, 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: Flugunfall der Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales 1976
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 243409655 · 2024-03-24 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q65235384
- 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 "Flugunfall der Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales 1976" (page 10768428, revision 243409655), 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
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): The oil company's own aircraft carried its own personnel between its sites: a corporate flight for the owner, not a flight for hire. The article: "the Avro 748 Ciudad de Corrientes was used to fly out personnel of the state oil company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF)"
- 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.