Panair do Brasil accident near Manaus
Lockheed L-049 Constellation · Controlled flight into terrain
From Val de Cans/Júlio Cezar Ribeiro International Airport (BEL) to Manaus/Ponta Pelada Airport, Amazonas, Brazil
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
- 50 · 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
Lockheed L-049 Constellation
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed L-049
- 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-PDE
- Operator
- Panair do Brasil
- Onboard fatalities
- 50
- Route
- From Val de Cans/Júlio Cezar Ribeiro International Airport (BEL)To Manaus/Ponta Pelada Airport, Amazonas, Brazil
Cause areas
- Not determined › Not determined
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The Panair do Brasil accident near Manaus occurred on 14 December 1962, when a Panair do Brasil Lockheed L-049 Constellation passenger aircraft on a scheduled flight from Belém to Manaus in the Brazilian state of Amazonas strayed from its flight route and crashed in the Amazon region, near Paraná da Eva. All 50 people on board the aircraft were killed in the accident.
Accident sequence
After taking off from Rio de Janeiro-Santos Dumont Airport on the morning of 13 December 1962, the aircraft called at the airports of several cities in Brazil as stopovers, until at 23:31 local time it began the flight from Belém to Manaus and thus the last leg of the journey. The flight on this leg was to last three hours; the aircraft followed airway Amber 1. At 01:04 local time on 14 December 1962 the pilots reported to air traffic control at the destination airport that they were still six minutes away. The pilots asked for the runway lights to be switched on. At 01:19 local time the crew called air traffic control again and asked the controller on duty whether the aircraft's engine noise could be heard at the airport. The controller said no and asked why the crew was asking this question. No further radio communication between the aircraft and air traffic control took place after that. The wreck of the aircraft was found on 15 December 1962, 45 kilometres from Manaus, near the municipality of Rio Preto da Eva.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The aircraft had flown into trees in level flight and in cruise configuration. The type of accident was determined to be a controlled flight into terrain, although its exact cause could not be established, even though several hypotheses were put forward.
This was the last fatal accident involving a Panair do Brasil aircraft. A few years later the company was dissolved by the military regime and its routes were awarded to Varig, while the remaining aircraft were redistributed to other airlines or scrapped.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall der Panair do Brasil bei Manaus” (revision 253555500, 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 Panair do Brasil bei Manaus
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 253555500 · 2025-02-22 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q10356049
- 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 Panair do Brasil bei Manaus" (page 11380437, revision 253555500), 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
- operator is an airline according to Wikidata
- 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.