Paraense Transportes Aéreos Flight 903

The crash of Paraense Transportes Aéreos Flight 903 was an aviation disaster that occurred on March 14, 1970, near Belém, Pará.

Paraense Transportes Aéreos Flight 903

After the end of Paraense, its Fairchild Hiller FH-227 aircraft were transferred to Varig, including PP-BUH. After many years with the Brazilian company, this aircraft was sold to the Argentine company CATA and eventually crashed in 2003.
Accident
Date	March 14, 1970 (1970-03-14)
Summary	Low visibility, pilot error
Site	Guajará Bay
Total fatalities	37
Total injuries	2
Total survivors	2
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Fairchild Hiller FH-227
Operator	Paraense Transportes Aéreos
Registration	PP-BUF Hirondelle
Flight origin	Recife/Guararapes–Gilberto Freyre International Airport, Recife, Pernambuco
Stopover	Fortaleza, Parnaíba, São Luiz
Destination	Belém/Val-de-Cans International Airport, Belém, Pará
Occupants	39
Passengers	35
Crew	4
Fatalities	37
Injuries	2
Survivors	2

Aircraft

The Fairchild Hiller FH-227 was a version of the Fokker F27 (developed in the Netherlands as a successor to the Douglas DC-3) manufactured by Fairchild in the United States under license from Fokker. Due to its qualities, the F27 became one of the best-selling turboprops in the world. The Fairchild Hiller version had a wider fuselage, modern avionics for the time, and a capacity of up to 56 people (4 crew members and 52 passengers). The crashed aircraft was part of a batch of 5 aircraft ordered by Paraense Transportes Aéreos. Manufactured in 1967 by Fairchild, the aircraft received construction number 556 and was delivered in the same year to Paraense, where it received the registration PP-BUF. The FH-227 aircraft were named Hirondelle (swallow in French) by the company from Pará.

Accident

Flight 903 took off on the night of March 13 from Recife/Guararapes–Gilberto Freyre International Airport, making stops in Fortaleza, Parnaíba, and São Luiz. Around 5:00 am on March 14, they reached the vicinity of Belém, facing bad weather with heavy rain and low visibility. During the approach maneuver to land on runway 06 of Belém/Val-de-Cans International Airport, the pilot was unable to see the runway. At 5:30 am, flying below the safety ceiling due to low visibility and loss of depth perception, the aircraft's right wing touched the waters of the Guajará Bay, losing control and diving into the bay shortly afterward, about a few hundred meters from the threshold of runway 06.

The accident killed almost all the occupants, with some bodies recovered only on March 30. Among the dead were comedians Luiz Jacinto Silva (known for the character Coronel Ludugero), Irandir Costa, and the entire production team who had boarded in São Luiz do Maranhão to disembark in Belém, where they were to perform. Only 3 people survived the crash, with 1 dying later in the hospital.

Consequences

The precariousness of Paraense Transportes Aéreos (PTA) operations became strongly evident after this accident. During the 1960s, the company received the nickname PTA Pobre também avua (Poor also flies) from the society of Pará, due to low fares and the precariousness of its operations (noted after 13 accidents occurred in a span of 12 years). After the accident, the company was left with only one Hirondelle, while three others were grounded due to lack of parts and one aircraft was undergoing maintenance in the United States. Due to the lack of means to fulfill its concession, as well as the precariousness of its operations, the company had its flight license revoked by the Ministry of Aeronautics, ceasing operations shortly thereafter.

Bibliography

• SILVA, Carlos Ari Cesar Germano da; O rastro da bruxa: história da aviação comercial brasileira no século XX através dos seus acidentes; Porto Alegre Editora EDIPUCRS, 2008, pp 267–268.

External links

• Accident details on the Aviation Safety Network