A Conviasa

Conviasa

Conviasa is an airline with its headquarters on the grounds of Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, Venezuela, near Caracas. It operates services to domestic destinations and to destinations in the Caribbean and South America...

 Boeing 737-291 Advanced (registered as YV-102T) ferry flight from Maiquetia

Maiquetía

Maiquetía is a city in the Vargas state of Venezuela, near Caracas.Simón Bolívar International Airport, which handles both international and domestic flights, is located in the city....

, Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

 to Latacunga

Latacunga

Latacunga is a plateau town of Ecuador, capital of the Cotopaxi Province, south of Quito, near the confluence of the Alaques and Cutuchi rivers to form the Patate, the headstream of the Pastaza. At the time of census 2001 Latacunga had 51,689 inhabitants, largely mestizo and indigenous.Latacunga...

, Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

 crashed into Illiniza Volcano

Illiniza

The Illinizas are a pair of mountains that are located to the south of Quito. They are found in the ecological reserve that shares its name with the mountains. These twin mountains are separated in the middle by a saddle that is about a kilometer long...

. The aircraft had been stored at Caracas

Caracas

Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...

 and was being ferried to a new owner. There were 3 crew on board, none of whom survived.

Aircraft

The crashed plane first flew on June 23, 1978 to Frontier Airlines

Frontier Airlines (1950-1986)

Frontier Airlines was formed from a merger of Arizona Airways, Challenger Airlines, and Monarch Airlines on June 1, 1950. They established their headquarters at Stapleton Airport in Denver. However, the airline dated itself to November 27, 1946, when Monarch Airlines began service in Colorado,...

. It later was operated by United Airlines

United Airlines

United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...

 and Atlantic Airlines de Honduras

Atlantic Airlines de Honduras

Atlantic Airlines de Honduras was an airline based in La Ceiba, Honduras, which operated domestic and regional passenger flights, mostly out of Goloson International Airport and Toncontin International Airport. The company was established in 2001...

 before changing hands to Conviasa.

Investigation and final report

The accident was investigated by the Dirección General de Aviación Civil (DGAC) of Ecuador. The investigation spanned 622 days following the incident and the final report was released on May 14, 2010. The findings of the report were as follows (translated from Spanish):

"The Accident Investigation Board judges that the probable cause of this accident was non-observance by the flight crew of the technical procedures, configuration, speed and bank angle of the aircraft required to complete the initial turn of Instrument Approach Procedure Number 4 published in the Ecuador AIP [Aeronautical Information Publication] for Latacunga airport, a failure that placed the aircraft outside of the protected area (published pattern), bringing it into high elevation mountainous terrain."

The report also listed the crew's ignorance of the area surrounding the approach path and lack of airline documentation and procedures governing the conduct of flights to non-scheduled and special airports.