Avensa Flight 358

Avensa Flight 358 was a scheduled domestic flight from Maturín Airport to Simón Bolívar International Airport in Venezuela that crashed on 22 December 1974 killing all 75 people on board.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a seven-year-old DC-9-14, which had been delivered to Avensa from McDonnell Douglas in 1967.

Accident

On 22 December 1974, the McDonnell Douglas DC-9, with 69 passengers and 6 crew on board, took off on runway 05 from Maturín Airport. In command was 49-year-old Captain Diógenes Torrellas Leon, a veteran pilot with 25,000 hours of flying time, and the First Officer was Norberto Vivas Uzcátegui. Five minutes after takeoff the pilots declared an emergency to the control tower. The pilots lost control of the aircraft and crashed from the city of Maturín, Venezuela. All 75 on board the flight perished.

Cause

Venezuelan authorities and the United States National Transportation Safety Board investigated the accident. The cause of the accident was not determined, though an elevator malfunction was considered.