Panair DC-3 PP-PCH accident
Panair do Brasil Douglas DC-3 · The Panair DC-3 PP-PCH accident occurred on the afternoon of 27 September 1946
From an unrecorded airport to Rio de Janeiro
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
- 25 · 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
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
- Unknown
- Operator
- Panair do Brasil
- Onboard fatalities
- 25
- Route
- From not recordedTo Rio de Janeiro
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 Panair DC-3 PP-PCH accident occurred on the afternoon of 27 September 1946. The Panair do Brasil flight took off at 16:10 from Lagoa Santa aerodrome (Pampulha airport), in Belo Horizonte, bound for Rio de Janeiro, making its last radio contact with the Panair station at 16:38, while flying over the town of Conselheiro Lafaiete.
At 16:40, after entering a possible cumulonimbus, where it would lose lift, the Douglas DC-3 struck Morro dos Marimbondos, in the Serra da Samambaia, near the village of Abreus, about from the urban area of Alto Rio Doce. All its occupants died.
The aircraft did not land at Santos Dumont airport, nor did it send any news. Searches to locate it were launched. Some local residents said they had heard a loud explosion at around 16:40, which they mistook for thunder because of the heavy storm at that moment. Flying on instruments and without weather radar to identify zones of severe turbulence, the severe turbulence led to loss of control of the aircraft. The aircraft fell and struck the ground at high speed.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Portuguese Wikipedia article “Acidente do DC-3 da Panair prefixo PP-PCH” (revision 72634430, 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
Portuguese Wikipedia article: Acidente do DC-3 da Panair prefixo PP-PCH
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 72634430 · 2026-07-16 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q25439899
- 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
- pt Wikipedia article "Acidente do DC-3 da Panair prefixo PP-PCH" (page 5092577, revision 72634430), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17)
- 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 Portuguese Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.