2021 Aliansa DC-3 crash
Aliansa - Aerolineas Andinas Douglas DC-3 · Controlled flight into terrain minutes after takeoff
From Vanguardia Airport (VVC) to Vanguardia Airport (VVC)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA21WA172
- 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
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 3 · 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
- 0
- 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
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Douglas DC-3
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-3
- Category
- Airplane
- 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-2820
- Operator
- Aliansa - Aerolineas Andinas
- Onboard fatalities
- 3
- Route
- From Vanguardia Airport (VVC)To Vanguardia Airport (VVC)
- Aircraft age
- About 77 years (built 1944)
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Psychological
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
From the Wikipedia article
The 2021 Aliansa DC-3 crash occurred on Friday, 8 July of that year, when a Douglas DC-3 aircraft belonging to the Colombian airline Aliansa crashed into a mountainous area in the Salinas rural district, of the municipality of Restrepo, in the Meta department, Colombia, shortly after taking off from Villavicencio. The aircraft was scheduled to make a training flight and there were three crew members on board.
Initially, the aircraft was missing and was not found for 36 hours until the rescue agencies located the wreckage; however, the area was difficult to access. Three days later, on 11 July, the investigation and rescue commission confirmed the total destruction of the aircraft and the death of its three occupants.
Similar accidents
2019 Laser Aéreo DC-3 crash
Avianca Flight 410
Investigation and cause
Investigation
Shortly after the loss of communication, the Civil Aeronautics and other relief groups began search and rescue work, which was hampered by the rainy weather conditions in the western mountain range. The wreckage of the aircraft was found almost two days after the accident due to the difficulty of where it was located. One day after this, the lifeless bodies of the aircraft's occupants were recovered, confirming the identities of the crew members. The Civil Aeronautics then devoted itself to the investigation of the event.
Probable causes
The final report on the accident published by Aerocivil of Colombia mentions the following probable causes:
Impact with the ground without loss of control during the execution of the VVC2A IFR departure procedure, during which the crew mistakenly turned left, contrary to the procedure, towards the mountainous area of the foothills of the eastern mountain range, where the impact occurred.
Loss of situational awareness by the crew, who, for reasons that could not be determined, apparently made a controlled left turn, contrary to the instructions of the VVC2A departure procedure, despite being an experienced crew familiar with the area of operations.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Spanish Wikipedia article “Accidente del DC-3 de Aliansa de 2021” (revision 168799176, 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
Spanish Wikipedia article: Accidente del DC-3 de Aliansa de 2021
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 168799176 · 2025-08-03 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q108647773
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record GAA21WA172
- Event ID
- 20210713103471
- Case number
- GAA21WA172
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- es Wikipedia article "Accidente del DC-3 de Aliansa de 2021" (page 10028019, revision 168799176), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case GAA21WA172 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17)
- Map position
- NTSB record GAA21WA172: NTSB API eventLatitude/eventLongitude
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record GAA21WA172
- Operation
- operator named as an airline in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "2021 Aliansa DC-3 crash" and NTSB case GAA21WA172, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.