Avensa Flight 007 was a domestic Venezuelan flight operated by Avensa Airlines on a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32, which crashed on 11 March 1983 on a

domestic flight A domestic flight is a form of commercial flight within civil aviation where the departure and the arrival take place in the same country. Airports serving domestic flights only are known as domestic airports. Domestic flights are generally c ...

from

Caracas Airport Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern par ...

to Barquisimeto Airport, Venezuela. It landed hard, skidded off the

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

and exploded. Twenty-two passengers and one crew member died.

Accident

The Douglas DC-9, registration YV-67C, was on an internal flight when it made an ILS approach in thick

fog Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus and is heavily influenc ...

at Barquisimeto Airport, Venezuela. The DC-9 landed hard 1,015 meters beyond the runway threshold, causing the

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for taxiing, takeoff or landing. For aircraft, it is generally needed for all three of these. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, s ...

to collapse. The aircraft subsequently slid off the runway and exploded. The aircraft was carrying 45 passengers and 5 crew, of whom one crewman and 22 of the passengers died. Ten passengers were seriously injured. Amongst the dead was Luis Enrique Arias, sports narrator of the Venezuelan Television Network.

Investigation

The probable causes were ruled to be "Improper in-flight decisions and inadequate supervision of the flight".

References

Aviation accidents and incidents in 1983 Aviation accidents and incidents in Venezuela Accidents and incidents involving the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error Airliner accidents and incidents involving fog Avensa accidents and incidents March 1983 in South America 1983 disasters in Venezuela {{aviation-accident-stub