Aviaco accident near Barcelona
de Havilland DH-114 Heron 2D · Loss of control
From Zaragoza Airport (ZAZ) to Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)
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
- 16 · 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
de Havilland DH-114 Heron 2D
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DH-114
- 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
- EC-ANJ
- Operator
- Aviaco
- Onboard fatalities
- 16
- Route
- From Zaragoza Airport (ZAZ)To Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Operating environment
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 Aviaco accident near Barcelona occurred on 14 April 1958, when a de Havilland DH-114 Heron 2D of Aviaco went out of control and crashed on final approach to the destination airport during a domestic scheduled flight from Zaragoza to Barcelona. All 16 occupants of the aircraft were killed in the incident. At that time it was the deadliest accident involving a de Havilland Heron, later surpassed only by two accidents with 19 fatalities each in 1963 and 1969.
Accident sequence
The aircraft took off from Zaragoza Airport at 20:19 local time and flew to Barcelona. At 21:06 the crew reported flying a circuit. Another identical de Havilland Heron 2D of Aviaco with the registration EC-AEJ had meanwhile been prepared for departure from the airport, but was initially refused takeoff clearance. When the Heron EC-ANJ was five minutes away from Barcelona Airport, EC-AEJ was eventually given takeoff clearance after all. After lifting off, the two aircraft were at an altitude of 150 metres on crossing flight paths. The crew of the Heron EC-ANJ was forced to make an abrupt evasive manoeuvre to avoid a collision. In doing so, the pilots lost control of their aircraft, which crashed into the Mediterranean Sea south of the airport, near Castelldefels, at 21:07 local time, killing all 16 occupants.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The cause of the accident was given as the issuing of takeoff clearance to EC-AEJ by air traffic control in Barcelona without first ascertaining the exact position of EC-ANJ.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall der Aviaco bei Barcelona” (revision 269744170, 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 Aviaco bei Barcelona
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 269744170 · 2026-08-17 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q105565538
- 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 Aviaco bei Barcelona" (page 11636988, revision 269744170), 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
- 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.