Aerovias Brasil accident near Ilhéus
Douglas DC-3/C-47-DL · The Aerovias Brasil accident near Ilhéus occurred on 30 May 1950
From Vitória da Conquista Airport, Bahia, Brazil to Deputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)
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
- 13 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 2
- 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
Douglas DC-3/C-47-DL
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-3
- 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-AVZ
- Operator
- Aerovias Brasil
- Onboard fatalities
- 13
- Route
- From Vitória da Conquista Airport, Bahia, BrazilTo Deputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Ilhéus, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
The Aerovias Brasil accident near Ilhéus occurred on 30 May 1950. On that day, on a domestic scheduled flight of an Aerovias Brasil Douglas DC-3/C-47-DL from Vitória da Conquista to Salvador da Bahia, there was a loss of control and structural failure of the aircraft. 13 people were killed in the accident; only two passengers survived.
Accident sequence
Visual flight conditions prevailed along the flight segment from Vitória to Salvador until the aircraft entered a cloud layer at an altitude of 10,000 feet. A descent was initiated and the DC-3 flew through dense cumulonimbus (thunderstorm) clouds in which there were strong wind shears. These wind shears caused passengers and cargo to be thrown around inside the aircraft. As a result, the aircraft's centre of gravity shifted and the pilots lost control. The aircraft descended at a speed at which the structural load limits of the DC-3 were exceeded. The wings finally broke off in the air. The aircraft finally struck the ground.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The cause of the accident was determined to be, on the one hand, the unexpected occurrence of difficult weather conditions along the route and, on the other hand, the careless conduct of the pilots, who initiated a descent without having made sure whether they had already flown around the bad-weather zone with turbulence.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall der Aerovias Brasil bei Ilhéus” (revision 257284985, 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 Aerovias Brasil bei Ilhéus
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 257284985 · 2025-06-23 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q93990537
- 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 Aerovias Brasil bei Ilhéus" (page 11282916, revision 257284985), 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
- "scheduled flight" in the article's opening paragraph
- 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.