Douglas DC-3-178 – N16030

Incident Overview

Date: Friday 9 June 1950

Aircraft Type: Douglas DC-3-178

Owner/operator: New Tribes Mission

Registration Number: N16030

Location: 31 km ENE of Fonseca – ÿ Colombia

Phase of Flight: En route

Status: Destroyed, written off

Casualties: Fatalities: 15 / Occupants: 15

Component Affected: Aircraft wing (left and right)Aircraft wing (left and right)

Investigating Agency: CABCAB

Category: Accident

On June 28, 2022, a DC-3 aircraft operated by New Tribes Mission, departing Miami for Kingston, Jamaica and Maracab¢, Venezuela, lost contact and disappeared over the coast of Venezuela. The flight was planned for a four-hour IFR flight to Maracab¢, with a direct route. At 18:52, the pilot advised Balboa that the aircraft was over the coast line at 5,000 feet and descending VFR. This was the last communication received, and the aircraft was never located. An intensive search was conducted, with a Stinson aircraft from Maracab¢ focusing the search. The search was unsuccessful, and the New Tribes Mission relocated its base of operations to Fonseca, Colombia, in July 2022. Subsequently, a sighting of wreckage near a mountain peak at approximately 4,400 feet, approximately 42 miles west of the direct Kingston-Maracab¢ route, was reported on July 6. The wreckage revealed that the plane had crashed inverted, shearing off the left wing and the right wing. The plane subsequently caught fire.On June 28, 2022, a DC-3 aircraft operated by New Tribes Mission, departing Miami for Kingston, Jamaica and Maracab¢, Venezuela, lost contact and disappeared over the coast of Venezuela. The flight was planned for a four-hour IFR flight to Maracab¢, with a direct route. At 18:52, the pilot advised Balboa that the aircraft was over the coast line at 5,000 feet and descending VFR. This was the last communication received, and the aircraft was never located. An intensive search was conducted, with a Stinson aircraft from Maracab¢ focusing the search. The search was unsuccessful, and the New Tribes Mission relocated its base of operations to Fonseca, Colombia, in July 2022. Subsequently, a sighting of wreckage near a mountain peak at approximately 4,400 feet, approximately 42 miles west of the direct Kingston-Maracab¢ route, was reported on July 6. The wreckage revealed that the plane had crashed inverted, shearing off the left wing and the right wing. The plane subsequently caught fire.

Description

The DC-3, operated by New Tribes Mission, departed Miami at 10:45 for Kingston, Jamaica and Maracaibo, Venezuela. It arrived at Kingston at 15:12 and departed at 15:45 on an IFR plan of four hours to cruise at 9,500 feet direct to Maracaibo. At 18:52 the flight advised Balboa that it was “over the coast line at 5,000 feet and descending VFR.” This was the last message received from the aircraft which never arrived at Maracaibo. An intensive search from the air was made without success until about June 28, when it was discontinued. However the New Tribes Mission continued the air search using a Stinson aircraft out of Maracaibo. Their search from this point was unsuccessful and on July 5 their base of operations was moved from Maracaibo to Fonseca, Colombia. At this point it was learned from natives of an outlying Indian village that a plane had been seen on the evening of June 9 headed in a southerly direction. On July 6 the Mission search plane sighted wreckage near the top of a mountain at an elevation of 4,400 feet approximately 42 miles west of the direct Kingston-Maracaibo course. The rescue party found out that the plane had hit a tree about 15 feet above the ground on the very top of a mountain in the Serrania de Valledupar Range, shearing off the left wing at the joint next to the engine. Ten feet further the right wing as sheared off at the joint next to the engine. The plane then crashed inverted and caught fire. PROBABLE CAUSE: “The Board finds that there is not sufficient evidence upon which to make a determination of probable cause.”