Pangara DC-3 crash in Arequipa
Douglas DC-3 · Controlled flight into terrain
From Lima (Peru) to Santiago de Chile (Chile)
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
- 14 · 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
- 1
- 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
- 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
- NC 33645
- Operator
- Pangara
- Onboard fatalities
- 14
- Route
- From Lima (Peru)To Santiago de Chile (Chile)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Arequipa, the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
On 22 January 1943. A Douglas DC-3A-399 operated by Panagra was making the flight from Santiago de Chile to Lima, Peru, when it crashed into the mountains of Chaparra, causing the deaths of 14 people.
Accident
The took off from Santiago at 05:30, at 13:59 it landed without problems at the high-altitude airport of Arequipa. After refuelling, at 14:09 the aircraft with 11 passengers and 4 crew on board took off from Arequipa for Lima.
At 14:25 the crew reported to the dispatcher at Arequipa airport. Because of the short range of radio communication, the crew did not report on their departure from Arequipa; in turn, the airline's dispatcher in Arequipa, according to the rules established at Panagra, was to report this to Lima only the following day. According to the testimony of the surviving passenger, the flight was quite normal, although 15 minutes after takeoff from Arequipa it was already among the clouds.
At 14:30 the aircraft reported having passed the Siguas River, and at 14:54 -; these reports were received by the airline dispatchers in Arequipa, Pisco and Lima. No further messages were received from NC33645, and it never arrived anywhere.
It was discovered that, flying in the clouds at approximately 4000 m in a west-northwesterly direction, the Douglas crashed into a mountainside and exploded. Rescuers who arrived the following morning found the only surviving passenger at the crash site: the 26-year-old British pilot Alfred John Edward managed to escape through the main exit before the aircraft was destroyed by fire. The other 10 passengers and 4 crew members died. At the time, it was the largest air disaster in Peru.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The Civil Aeronautics Board commission concluded that the person to blame for the accident was the aircraft commander Gardner, who was flying from Arequipa to Peru on a course of 290°, which contradicted standard operating procedures, since the airline's rules permitted this only in visual conditions or above a cloud layer. However, the actual flight took place in weather conditions requiring instrument flight, so according to the airline's regulations, the aircraft should have followed a heading of 270° to reach the ocean safely over lower terrain, since the weather was clear over the coast at this time of year. Although the airline's policies were not published in writing, Gardner knew them, but in this case inexplicably ignored them.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Spanish Wikipedia article “Accidente del DC-3 de Pangara en Arequipa” (revision 174850133, 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 Pangara en Arequipa
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 174850133 · 2026-08-14 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q55653499
- 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
- es Wikipedia article "Accidente del DC-3 de Pangara en Arequipa" (page 11573078, revision 174850133), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata 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
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): A Panagra DC-3 carrying 11 passengers from Santiago to Lima under the airline's dispatch rules: an airline passenger flight. The article: "the airline's dispatcher in Arequipa, according to the rules established at Panagra, was to report this to Lima only the following day"
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Spanish Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.