Aviaco Flight 118 - Misplaced Pages

1973 plane crash in Spain

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Spanish. (January 2022) Click for important translation instructions.

Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Misplaced Pages.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Spanish Misplaced Pages article at ]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|es|Vuelo 118 de Aviaco}} to the talk page.
For more guidance, see Misplaced Pages:Translation.

Aviaco Flight 118
Accident
EC-BIC, the aircraft involved in the accident
Date	13 August 1973
Summary	Pilot error leading to Controlled flight into terrain
Site	Montrove, Spain 43°19′49″N 8°21′30.7″W / 43.33028°N 8.358528°W / 43.33028; -8.358528
Total fatalities	86
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle
Aircraft name	Emilio Arrieta
Operator	Aviaco
Registration	EC-BIC
Flight origin	Madrid-Barajas Airport, Madrid, Spain
Destination	Alvedro Airport, A Coruña, Spain
Passengers	79
Crew	6
Fatalities	85
Survivors	0
Ground casualties
Ground fatalities	1

Aviaco Flight 118 was a Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle operated by Aviaco that crashed in the village of Montrove, Spain on 13 August 1973, while attempting to land at Alvedro Airport in heavy fog. The aircraft crashed into an abandoned farmhouse approximately 2 kilometres (1.2 mi; 1.1 nmi) from the airport. All 85 persons on board perished in the crash and subsequent fire. One person in the village also died.

Flight 118 was a seasonal daily flight from Madrid to A Coruña favoured by tourists. Local news reports indicated that AO118 was a special "vacation flight" run by Aviaco during the summer season, so as to provide easy access to Galicia's numerous ocean-side resorts.

The aircraft had taken off normally from Madrid at 9:14 a.m. CEST. After an uneventful journey, the commander contacted the control tower at La Coruña Airport at 10:14, and was informed of the poor visibility in the area at that time. Despite being advised to stand by in anticipation of an early improvement in weather conditions, the crew began a first approach at 10:23 to check the actual visibility. The manoeuvre was frustrated, and the aircraft returned to an altitude of 2000 metres.

After a second unsuccessful approach, at 11:20 the tower warned Flight 118 that the fog was lifting, and that the horizontal visibility had increased to about 1500 meters and the vertical visibility was close to 300 meters. At 11:39, the crew reported that they had begun a new approach, this being the last communication received by the airport control tower. Shortly afterwards the aircraft hit eucalyptus trees, struck the ground and collided with the abandoned farmhouse before bursting into flames.

The collision and fire killed 84 of the aircraft's 85 occupants immediately. The only survivor, who was taken to the Hospital in La Coruña, died a few hours later as a result of the serious injuries suffered. In addition, one person on the ground was reported to have been killed.

The official cause of the accident was the pilot's violation of air safety rules by landing in poor visibility. This fact was considered even more serious considering that at Santiago de Compostela Airport the visibility was good at the time of the accident, and being only 45 km away.

References

Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 22 October 2009.
"No ha habido supervivientes en el accidente aereo de La Coruña" [There have been no survivors in the air accident in La Coruña.]. ABC (Spain) (in Spanish). Madrid, Spain. 14 August 1973. p. 11.
^ "Jet Crashes in Spain" (PDF). Ruston Daily Leader. Ruston, Louisiana. UPI. 13 August 1973. p. 1. Transcript.
Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle 10R EC-BIC La Coruña Airport (LCG)". aviation-safety.net. Retrieved 19 May 2020.

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in Spain
Before 1970	Hubert Le Blon (April 1910) Aviaco SNCASE Languedoc crash (December 1958) Transair Douglas Dakota accident (August 1959) Iberia Flight 401 (May 1965)
1970s	Dan-Air Flight 1903 (July 1970) Iberia Flight 602 (January 1972) Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 130 (September 1972) Tenerife Spantax Convair CV-990 crash (December 1972) Aviaco Flight 118 (August 1973) Imperial Iranian Air Force Flight 48 (May 1976) Tenerife airport disaster (March 1977)
1980s	Dan-Air Flight 1008 (April 1980) Spantax Flight 995 (September 1982) Avianca Flight 011 (November 1983) Madrid runway disaster (December 1983) Iberia Flight 610 (February 1985)
1990s	Britannia Airways Flight 226A (September 1999)
2000s	Binter Mediterráneo Flight 8261 (August 2001) Flightline Flight 101 (October 2001) Spanair Flight 5022 (August 2008)
2010s	2015 Seville Airbus A400M crash (May 2015)

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in 1973 (1973)
Jan 21 Aeroflot Flight 6263Jan 22 Kano Nigeria Airways Boeing 707 crashJan 29 EgyptAir Flight 741Feb 19 Aeroflot Flight 141Feb 21 Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114Feb 24 Aeroflot Flight 630Feb 26 DeKalb–Peachtree Airport Learjet 24 crashFeb 28 Aeroflot Flight X-167Mar 3 Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Flight 307Mar 5 Nantes mid-air collisionApr 10 Invicta International Airlines Flight 435Apr 23 Aeroflot Flight 2420May 11 Aeroflot Flight 6551May 18 Aeroflot Flight 109May 30 SAM Colombia Flight 601May 31 Indian Airlines Flight 440Jun 3 Paris Air Show Tu-144 crashJun 10 Nepal plane hijackingJun 20 Aeroméxico Flight 229Jul 11 Varig Flight 820Jul 22 Pan Am Flight 816Jul 23 Japan Air Lines Flight 404Jul 23 Ozark Air Lines Flight 809Jul 31 Delta Air Lines Flight 723Aug 13 Aviaco Flight 118Aug 18 Aeroflot Flight A-13Aug 27 Aerocondor Lockheed L-188 Electra crashAug 28 TWA Flight 742Sep 8 World Airways Flight 802Sep 11 JAT Flight 769Sep 27 Texas International Airlines Flight 655Sep 30 Aeroflot Flight 3932Oct 13 Aeroflot Flight 964Nov 2 Aeroflot Flight 19Nov 3 Pan Am Flight 160Nov 3 National Airlines Flight 27Nov 21 US Navy C-117D Sólheimasandur CrashNov 23 Italian Air Force C-47 Argo 16 crashNov 25 KLM Flight 861Dec 16 Aeroflot Flight 2022Dec 17 Iberia Flight 933Dec 17 Pan Am Fl. 110, Lufthansa Fl. 303 hijackingDec 22 Royal Air Maroc Caravelle crash
1972 ◄ ► 1974

Aviation accidents and incidents in 1973 (1973)

Jan 21 Aeroflot Flight 6263Jan 22 Kano Nigeria Airways Boeing 707 crashJan 29 EgyptAir Flight 741Feb 19 Aeroflot Flight 141Feb 21 Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114Feb 24 Aeroflot Flight 630Feb 26 DeKalb–Peachtree Airport Learjet 24 crashFeb 28 Aeroflot Flight X-167Mar 3 Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Flight 307Mar 5 Nantes mid-air collisionApr 10 Invicta International Airlines Flight 435Apr 23 Aeroflot Flight 2420May 11 Aeroflot Flight 6551May 18 Aeroflot Flight 109May 30 SAM Colombia Flight 601May 31 Indian Airlines Flight 440Jun 3 Paris Air Show Tu-144 crashJun 10 Nepal plane hijackingJun 20 Aeroméxico Flight 229Jul 11 Varig Flight 820Jul 22 Pan Am Flight 816Jul 23 Japan Air Lines Flight 404Jul 23 Ozark Air Lines Flight 809Jul 31 Delta Air Lines Flight 723Aug 13 Aviaco Flight 118Aug 18 Aeroflot Flight A-13Aug 27 Aerocondor Lockheed L-188 Electra crashAug 28 TWA Flight 742Sep 8 World Airways Flight 802Sep 11 JAT Flight 769Sep 27 Texas International Airlines Flight 655Sep 30 Aeroflot Flight 3932Oct 13 Aeroflot Flight 964Nov 2 Aeroflot Flight 19Nov 3 Pan Am Flight 160Nov 3 National Airlines Flight 27Nov 21 US Navy C-117D Sólheimasandur CrashNov 23 Italian Air Force C-47 Argo 16 crashNov 25 KLM Flight 861Dec 16 Aeroflot Flight 2022Dec 17 Iberia Flight 933Dec 17 Pan Am Fl. 110, Lufthansa Fl. 303 hijackingDec 22 Royal Air Maroc Caravelle crash

1972 ◄ ► 1974

This article about an aviation accident is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

This article about transport in Spain is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

Categories: