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West Caribbean Airways Flight 708

West Caribbean Airways Flight 708
Siniestro YH708.jpg
Crash location and intended route.
Occurrence summary
Date 16 August 2005
Summary Deep stall due to pilot error, wind updraft
Site Machiques, Venezuela
9°39′59″N 72°36′40″W / 9.66639°N 72.61111°W / 9.66639; -72.61111Coordinates: 9°39′59″N 72°36′40″W / 9.66639°N 72.61111°W / 9.66639; -72.61111
Passengers 152
Crew 8
Fatalities 160 (all)
Survivors 0
Aircraft type McDonnell Douglas MD-82
Operator West Caribbean Airways (chartered by the Globe Trotters de Rivière Salée travel agency)
Registration HK-4374X
Flight origin , Panama
Destination Martinique Aimé Césaire Int'l Airport, Martinique
External image
Photograph of aircraft at Airliners.net

West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 was a West Caribbean Airways charter flight which crashed in a mountainous region in northwest Venezuela on the morning of Tuesday, 16 August 2005, killing all 152 passengers and eight crew. The plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, registration HK-4374X, was en route from (PTY) in Panama City, Panama to Martinique Aimé Césaire International Airport (FDF) in Fort-de-France, Martinique, France.

While flying at 33,000 ft, the aircraft's speed gradually decreased until it entered an aerodynamic stall. The crew, probably under the mistaken belief that the aircraft had suffered a double engine flame-out, did not take the necessary actions to recover from the stall. After a 7,000 feet per minute dive with engines in a flight idle or near flight idle condition, the plane crashed and burst into flames at 07:01 UTC into a field on a cattle ranch near Machiques, in the western Zulia State, Venezuela (about 30 kilometres from the Colombian border).

All the passengers were French citizens from Martinique, with the exception of one Italian, acting as the tour operator. The crew was Colombian. The flight was chartered by the Globe Trotters de Rivière Salée travel agency in Martinique. Most of the passengers were tourists returning from a week's vacation in Panama.

The 160-person death toll made the accident the deadliest of 2005. It is the deadliest air disaster in the history of Venezuela, the deadliest involving a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, and the third-deadliest involving a McDonnell Douglas MD-80 in general after Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308 and Dana Air Flight 992. It was the deadliest aviation accident worldwide since the loss of China Airlines Flight 611 until the loss of Air France Flight 447.


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