Avianca Flight 03, a Douglas DC-4, crashed into the sea after takeoff from Cartagena-Crespo Airport, Colombia, resulting in the deaths of 56 occupants and the survival of 8. The aircraft arrived at Crespo Airport (CTG) at 19:57 after a flight from Bogot  (BOG). The DC-4 climbed to 70 feet over the end of the runway and descended again until it struck the sea 1310 m from the runway end, and 152 m left of the extended centerline. The water at the accident site was 4 meters deep. The accident was attributed to a maintenance error resulting from inadequate inspection periodic, daily, nightly and transit servicing, specifically failure to notice the absence of a pin looseness and/or absence of a nut which joins the torsion links of the left landing gear. A possible contributing factor in the accident was pilot error, consisting in involuntary negligence in observing or wrongly interpreting the aircraft instruments during takeoff, at the time of changing over from VFR to IFR flight and/or loss of control of the aircraft by the pilot-in-command when checking the cause of a failure in the landing gear well and no.2 engine.Avianca Flight 03, a Douglas DC-4, crashed into the sea after takeoff from Cartagena-Crespo Airport, Colombia, resulting in the deaths of 56 occupants and the survival of 8. The aircraft arrived at Crespo Airport (CTG) at 19:57 after a flight from Bogot  (BOG). The DC-4 climbed to 70 feet over the end of the runway and descended again until it struck the sea 1310 m from the runway end, and 152 m left of the extended centerline. The water at the accident site was 4 meters deep. The accident was attributed to a maintenance error resulting from inadequate inspection periodic, daily, nightly and transit servicing, specifically failure to notice the absence of a pin looseness and/or absence of a nut which joins the torsion links of the left landing gear. A possible contributing factor in the accident was pilot error, consisting in involuntary negligence in observing or wrongly interpreting the aircraft instruments during takeoff, at the time of changing over from VFR to IFR flight and/or loss of control of the aircraft by the pilot-in-command when checking the cause of a failure in the landing gear well and no.2 engine.