Viasa Flight 742 was a regular flight between Maiquetía, Maracaibo and Miami that crashed within minutes of taking off from the Grano de Oro Airport in Maracaibo on March 16, 1969. As a result of this accident, the 84 people on board died of the DC-9 that was carrying out this flight and 71 people on the ground, totaling 155 dead and 100 people on the ground who were injured.
This accident was considered the deadliest air disaster in history until 1971, when a Japanese fighter jet crashed into the air with a Boeing 727 of Air Nippon Airways killing its 162 passengers.
Aircraft and flight crew
The aircraft involved was a Douglas DC9 recently purchased by Viasa, and it was an Avensa with its livery, which actually operated this route.
The pilot assigned to this flight was Captain Emiliano Savelli Maldonado, Avensa's chief of operations.
At 11:30 a. meter. Flight 742 lands at the Grano de Oro Airport in Maracaibo. According to witnesses present at the site, the DC9 tripped over the branches of a tree near the runway, which did not cause any damage to the plane.
After the boarding of some passengers, the plane starts a reel on the runway, rising just a few meters from the end of the runway. Without calculating the plane, it leans to the left, hitting some electrical power transformers on Ziruma Avenue, in front of the Capitol Cinema, after the lights of the Ziruma neighborhood basketball court tear the fuel tank, making the plane water it over the people that is here. Another post with two transformers hit the left engine again causing the explosion of fuel tanks, then the left wing hits several houses in its path until it falls off and falls on one of the houses, finally the plane is placed upside down between the Ziruma neighborhood and the La Trinidad urbanization. When it falls to the ground, one of the turbines falls off and falls on the house of Voley professional player Lino Connell, killing almost all of its occupants.
Due to its location near the accident site, the government of the time decided to close the Grano de Oro Airport, in which jet planes took off and landed, such as DC9 and 727.
In November 1969 the International Airport of La Chinita was inaugurated, which is currently the main airport of Maracaibo. Currently the Grano de Oro Airport is the headquarters of the Experimental Faculty of Sciences of the University of Zulia.