Accidentes Aereos





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Assidentes Aerios












West Caribbean Airways Flight 708
Summary
Date August 16, 2005
Cause Ice accumulation
Site Near Machiques, Venezuela
Passengers 152
Crew 8
Injuries 0
Fatalities 160
Survivors 0
Aircraft
 Aircraft type McDonnell Douglas MD-82
Operator Globe Trotters de Rivière Salée travel agency
Tail number HK-4374X
Intended Route and Crash Location of the Flight.

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, August 16, 2005, killing all 152 passengers and eight crew.

The plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, was en-route from Tocumen International Airport (PTY) in Panama City, Panama to Fort de France, Martinique (FDF). The pilots reported trouble with one engine, and later the other engine as well. They diverted the plane to Maracaibo for an emergency landing. After a 7,000 feet per minute dive with both engines in flames, the plane crashed at about 03:45 local time (07:45 UTC) into a field of La Cucharita cattle ranch near Machiques, in the western state of Zulia, Venezuela (about 30 kilometres from the Colombian border).

Nearly 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.