Vanished Plane Wreck Discovered

[Buster the Bear]

The wreckage of a Vickers Viscount passenger plane which vanished in Ecuador 27 years ago has been discovered on the South American country's highest mountain.

Climbers on Mount Chimborazo fund the remains of the four-engine Saeta Airlines turbo prop plane at over 16,000 feet on the side of the volcano - 4000 feet below the summit.

When the Ecuadorian aircraft went missing in August, 1976 it was carrying 59 passenger on a flight from the city of Cuenca to the country's capital, Quito.

http://www.aviation-safety.net/database/1976/760815-0.htm

http://community.the-underdogs.org/smiley/happy/angel2.gif

[PorcoRosso]

Sounds very similar to the "Stardust" case

Does anybody know if this type is equipped with CVR/FDR ? And if it happen to be the case, is there a good probability to read them after nearly 30 years ?

[pigboat]

Bonjour PR.
Large turboprop aircraft back then were equipped with CVR/FDR, but they were rather primitive compared to today's equipment. The FDR would have been the foil type that had about five or seven parameters, as I recall, and the CVR's were continuous loop tape with about thirty minutes of recording time. It would be a miracle if anything useful could be obtained after all this time. Of course, who knows maybe the cold would preserve the data.

[Taildragger]

Porco Rosso.....
It would be a bit borderline as to whether fitment of a CVR was mandatory at that time in that area. The UK, for example, did not make it mandatory until quite a while after the Trident crash at Staines in 1972. So given the time scale...Investigation-Public enquiry-report-recommendations, 1975 makes it a bit unlikely.
As in the case of Stardust, the authorities are obliged to mount a full investigation, even after all these years. The cold would make Post Mortems feasible and the wreckage has been undisturbed all these years, so i think at least a probable cause would be on the cards. I think, given the situation, that CFIT may have claimed another victim 27 years on, but let's not pre-empt the enquriy (He said swiftly) Hijacking was all the rage way back when wasn't it.??

[PorcoRosso]

Apart from the technical mysteries, at least the families of the victims know.
It's not exactly relief, but I guess it can help to solve unanswered questions since 27 years .
I am also going for the CFIT one; although we are not used to deal with this type of event at FL160 , here in Europe.

[jafa]

Good comment Porco - there are few things more distressing than having someone "missing". You just don't know...

[PorcoRosso]

Could someone explain to me why this thread is in the aviation History & Nostalgia ?
It's not about an old DC3 found somewhere in the ice, but about a civil airliner missing since 27 years ...
It's the beginning of a postponed investigation; case is not closed.

Huh ? any mods here ?

more details here (http://www.buenosairesherald.com/business/note.jsp?idContent=6253)

[Squawk7777]

Can someone please explain me what navaids where used at the time? VORs were introduced in the 60s and this crash happened at high altitude (=terrain restrictions) in a remote area.

[newswatcher]

Let me see. Vickers Viscount, the world's first turboprop passenger aircraft. No, can't see how that can possibly interest aviation historians.

:rolleyes:

[PorcoRosso]

Never meant it was of no interest , sorry if that's what you understood.
My point was ,it could stay in the reporting points area. It's a news, it may affect people who have known crew & pax . If I were a relative of one of the victims, I would like to hear more about this discovery, and not only from an historian point of view.
27 years, it's not that far on an individual scale ... I was a 5 years old kid, learning to write and read ... It was yesterday.

so let's put it differently :

Could someone explain to me why this thread is in the aviation History & Nostalgia and not in "reporting points" any more ?


OK ? ;)