VASP Flight 555

On 14 September 1969, a VASP Douglas C-47B aircraft, registration PP-SPP, flying the route from Campo Grande to São Paulo, with a stopover in Londrina.However, on the border between Paraná and São Paulo, midway along the route, near the city of Ourinhos, the pilots lost the left engine. After aborting their first landing attempt, the pilots were unable to gain altitude, the aircraft made a sharp turn to the left and stalled, subsequently crashing. All 20 people on board died, including the crew and passengers.

Accident

The aircraft took off from Londrina for São Paulo at 18:30 on 14 September 1969. On board were 14 passengers and 6 crew members. At the latitude of the city of Ourinhos, the engine on the left side began to fail and the pilots decided to shut it down and feather its propeller, that is, immobilise it so as not to cause drag.

Since the weather conditions at Congonhas airport were unfavourable, Valadão then declared a state of emergency and returned to Londrina, where the weather was good. The aircraft was approaching runway 12 of the airport. At that moment, Londrina radio stations learned of the situation and began reporting on the drama surrounding the VASP flight.

The control tower alerted the city's firefighters, who waited beside the runway for the Douglas C-47 to land. With no other reference point than the beacon lights, the commander approached the ball too high and too fast. The pilot touched down on the runway, which at that time was 1.6 km long, but, fearing he would not be able to stop the aircraft before the end of the runway, decided to abort the landing and attempt another approach. The aircraft the runway threshold, began a sharp turn to the left, stalled and finally crashed and exploded shortly afterwards, 1 km from the runway, in what was then the Jardim Monterrey Forest Reserve, in the eastern part of the city.