Avianca accident near Condoto
Douglas DC-3/C-47A-80-DL · The Avianca accident near Condoto occurred on 15 September 1964
From Condoto Airport, Colombia to Medellín Airport, Colombia
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
- 2 · 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
Douglas DC-3/C-47A-80-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
- HK-319
- Operator
- Avianca
- Onboard fatalities
- 2
- Route
- From Condoto Airport, ColombiaTo Medellín Airport, Colombia
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Condoto, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
The Avianca accident near Condoto occurred on 15 September 1964. On this day, an Avianca Douglas DC-3/C-47A-80-DL operating a domestic cargo flight from Condoto to Medellín crashed while the pilots were attempting to return to the departure airport with the aircraft, which was difficult to control due to incorrect loading. Both pilots were killed.
Accident sequence
The aircraft landed in Condoto at 11:48 local time after a flight from Medellín. It was loaded and unloaded there and took off from runway 27 at 12:40 for a return flight to Medellín. After liftoff, the crew switched to the en-route radio frequency. Five minutes after takeoff, the captain requested clearance to return to Condoto because the aircraft had been incorrectly loaded. At 12:50 the DC-3 was on final approach again. It overflew the airport grounds, flew a left turn and finally descended towards runway 27. The aircraft touched down on the runway and bounced twice until it climbed steeply again. This was followed by a stall and loss of control; at 17:51 the aircraft struck the ground with a left bank angle 480 metres beyond the end of the runway and caught fire. The aircraft came to rest 725 metres beyond the runway threshold. Both pilots were killed.
Crash site
The wreckage of the left wing as well as eight barrels were found in a ditch running parallel to runway 27. Parts of the pilot's headset and glasses were also found in the ditch, as were the dial of an altimeter and the left propeller. The rest of the wreckage had sunk into an adjacent pond, which was up to three metres deep in some places. Both pilots were still strapped into their seats, which had been torn out of the cockpit floor by the force of the impact.
Investigation and cause
Cause
Fault on the part of the ground staff was determined to be the main cause of the accident. The sequence of events that led to the accident was said to have been triggered by an incorrect distribution of the cargo on board the aircraft. The possibility that some barrels had been loaded lying down and were insufficiently secured was also found to be plausible. This could have led to the cargo shifting in flight, which would have moved the centre of gravity even further aft.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall der Avianca bei Condoto” (revision 269768146, 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 Avianca bei Condoto
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 269768146 · 2026-08-18 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q97940188
- 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 Avianca bei Condoto" (page 11392419, revision 269768146), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- centre of the town the Wikipedia infobox site names (GeoNames, CC BY 4.0)
- 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.