| SAETA Flight 011 | |
| Occurrence Type: | Accident |
| Summary: | Cause unknown; possible controlled flight into terrain |
| Site: | Pastaza Province, Ecuador |
| Occupants: | 57 |
| Passengers: | 52 |
| Crew: | 5 |
| Fatalities: | 57 |
| Survivors: | 0 |
| Aircraft Type: | Vickers 785D Viscount |
| Operator: | SAETA |
| Tail Number: | HC-AVP |
| Origin: | Quito-Mariscal Sucre Airport (UIO/SEQU), Ecuador |
| Destination: | Cuenca Airport (CUE/SECU), Ecuador |
On 23 April 1979, SAETA Flight 011, a Vickers Viscount passenger aircraft of Ecuadorian airline SAETA, crashed in a mountainous region of Pastaza Province, Ecuador, killing all 57 people on board. The wreckage of the aircraft was not found until five years later.[1]
Flight 011 departed at 7.08 am on 23 April from Quito-Mariscal Sucre Airport, Ecuador, on a domestic flight to Cuenca Airport. The plane was cruising in cloud at an altitude of and was expected to arrive in Cuenca at 8 am. However, the plane disappeared from radar screens and never arrived at its destination. Search and rescue operations were quickly started, but eventually abandoned after several days without finding any trace of the plane or its occupants.[2]
The mystery of the aircraft's disappearance gave birth to a theory published in The New York Times in November 1979, stating that the plane had been hijacked and flown to Colombia to participate in the drug smuggling to the United States.[3] The theory was disproved when the plane wreckage was discovered on a mountain slope at a height of 5500 meter (18045 feet) in the region of Shell-Mera, Pastaza Province, in 1984. It was only then, five years after the accident, that the fate of the missing aircraft and its occupants was solved. The cause of the accident was never determined.[4]
The Vickers 785D Viscount involved, HC-AVP (msn 329) was built in 1957 and was used by SAETA from May, 1971 until its destruction in 1979.[5]
The plane wreckage was discovered on a mountain slope at a height of 5500 meters (18045 feet) in the region of Shell-Mera, Pastaza Province, in 1984. Five years after the accident, it was only then that the fate of the missing aircraft and its occupants was determined. The cause of the accident was never determined.[6]
The aircraft was destroyed in the crash killing all 57 people on board. An investigation of the accident revealed that the aircraft had deviated 46 km (29 miles) from its intended course to Cuenca. However, the cause of this deviation remains unknown.[7]