On 15 February 1947, an Avianca Douglas DC-4, operating a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport to Techo International Airport, Colombia, crashed into a mountain two hours into its flight, killing all 53 occupants on board. At the time, it was both the deadliest aviation accident in Colombia and the deadliest worldwide involving a commercial aircraft.
Background Aircraft The aircraft involved in the accident was Douglas DC-4 registered as C-114. It was powered by four Pratt & Whitney R-2000 Twin Wasp engines. Avianca, the operator of the aircraft, was at the time the Colombian subsidiary of Pan Am.
Passengers and crew The aircraft was carrying 49 passengers and 4 crew members. The crew consisted of captain Kenneth Newton Poe and first officer Roy Kaye who was also acting as a radio operator – both of whom were Americans, and flight attendants Aida Chufji from Costa Rica and Carlos Rodríguez.
Among the passengers were high-ranking executives of the Colombia's oil companies. These included a British citizen and five American executives of Tropical Oil Company – a then-subsidiary of Imperial Oil Company of Canada, Texas Petroleum and United Artists, as well as a Canadian and a Frenchman who were both executives of Tropical Oil Company. Also on board was a Colombian attorney for Tropical Oil Company, and Colombian footballer and his son.
Aftermath Four hours after the crash, Colombia's Ministry of War informed Techo International Airport of the accident after a delay. According to the mayor of Supatá, a farmer who had witnessed the crash reported that he had seen "...a crash of shattered metal and an explosion like something from another world."
References