Accident near Babaçulândia
Paraense Transportes Aéreos Curtiss C-46A-40-CU · The accident near Babaçulândia occurred on 15 July 1959
From Pedro Afonso Airport, Brazil to Val de Cans/Júlio Cezar Ribeiro International Airport (BEL)
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
- 1
- 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
Curtiss C-46A-40-CU
- Aircraft type
- Curtiss C-46
- 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
- PT-BEE
- Operator
- Paraense Transportes Aéreos
- Onboard fatalities
- 2
- Route
- From Pedro Afonso Airport, BrazilTo Val de Cans/Júlio Cezar Ribeiro International Airport (BEL)
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Babaçulândia, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
The accident near Babaçulândia occurred on 15 July 1959. On that day, a Curtiss C-46A-40-CU of Paraense Transportes Aéreos, which was on a cargo flight from Pedro Afonso to Belém, crashed after an engine fire broke out in flight that made an emergency landing necessary. This turned into a crash landing, in which two of the three occupants died.
Accident sequence
On the flight from Pedro Afonso to Belém, a fire broke out in the area of the right engine. The propeller of the affected engine was feathered and the pilots tried to extinguish the fire using the engine fire extinguishing system, but this failed, so that an emergency landing became necessary. This turned into a crash landing, in which two crew members were killed and the third was injured. The aircraft burned out.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The accident investigation found that the fire had been caused by a ruptured fuel line. The escaping gasoline was said to have ignited through contact with highly heated components of the engine cowling, which developed into an uncontrollable fire.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall bei Babaçulândia” (revision 268423077, 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 bei Babaçulândia
- Article
- Flugunfall bei Babaçulândia
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 268423077 · 2026-07-02 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q123575690
- 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 bei Babaçulândia" (page 12892305, revision 268423077), 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
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): A Paraense Transportes Aéreos aircraft on a cargo flight: an air carrier flight. The article: "a Curtiss C-46A-40-CU of Paraense Transportes Aéreos, which was on a cargo flight from Pedro Afonso to Belém"
- 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.