LIAT Flight 319 was a scheduled Caribbean inter-island flight from

Hewanorra International Airport Hewanorra International Airport , located near Vieux Fort Quarter, Saint Lucia, in the Caribbean, is the larger of Saint Lucia's two airports and is managed by the Saint Lucia Air and Seaports Authority (SLASPA). It is on the southern cape of t ...

Saint Lucia Saint Lucia is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. Part of the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), Saint Vincent ...

to E. T. Joshua Airport in

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, sometimes known simply as Saint Vincent or SVG, is an island country in the eastern Caribbean. It is located in the southeast Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, which lie in the West Indies, at the south ...

. On 3 August 1986, the 19-seater de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Series 310 Twin Otter airliner serving the flight, which was operated by Leeward Islands Air Transport (LIAT), disappeared, but is believed to have crashed into the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

, resulting in the deaths of its 11 passengers and 2

aircrew Aircrew are personnel who operate an aircraft while in flight. The composition of a flight's crew depends on the type of aircraft, plus the flight's duration and purpose. Commercial aviation Flight deck positions In commercial aviatio ...

Aircraft

The aircraft involved in the accident was a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 310, with manufacturer

serial number A serial number (SN) is a unique identifier used to ''uniquely'' identify an item, and is usually assigned incrementally or sequentially. Despite being called serial "numbers", they do not need to be strictly numerical and may contain letters ...

785,

registered Registered may refer to: * Registered mail, letters, packets or other postal documents considered valuable and in need of a chain of custody * Registered trademark symbol, symbol ® that provides notice that the preceding is a trademark or service ...

as V2-LCJ. This airliner first flew in 1982. The aircraft was powered by two

Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-27 The Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 is a turboprop aircraft engine produced by Pratt & Whitney Canada. Its design was started in 1958, it first ran in February 1960, first flew on 30 May 1961, entered service in 1964, and has been continuously upd ...

. It was capable of accommodating 19 passengers.

Accident

On Sunday 4 August 1986, LIAT Flight 319 departed from

in St. Lucia, en route to the E. T. Joshua Airport (then called the Arnos Vale airport) in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. On attempting to land at its destination the plane encountered difficulties due to a rainstorm. Two initial attempts were made to land the plane. The plane is believed to have crashed into the sea and sunk in water some deep during its third landing attempt. Neither the bodies of the passengers and crew, nor the wreckage were discovered. The government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines declared everyone on board perished, after recovery attempts failed to locate any bodies six days after the crash.

Victims

Seven of the passengers aboard Flight 319 were Vincentian nationals. There were also two Americans, two Italians, one Canadian and one Antiguan among the flight's passengers and crew. Among the victims of the accident was former deputy prime minister and current opposition leader Hudson Tannis.

References

{{Aviation incidents and accidents in 1986 Airliner accidents and incidents caused by weather Aviation accidents or incidents in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Accidents and incidents involving the de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter Aviation accidents and incidents in 1986 1986 in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines August 1986 in North America Missing aircraft