TAAG Angola Airlines Flight 462

TAAG Angola Airlines Flight 462

A TAAG Angole Airlines Boeing 737-200 similar to the one involved.
Accident summary
Date 8 November 1983
Summary Claimed shootdown, Disputed
Site near Lubango, Angola
Passengers 126
Crew 4
Fatalities 130 (all)
Injuries (non-fatal) 0
Survivors 0
Aircraft type Boeing 737-200
Operator TAAG Angola Airlines
Registration D2-TBN
Flight origin Lubango Airport, Lubango, Angola
Destination Quatro de Fevereiro Airport, Luanda, Angola

The 1983 TAAG Angola Airlines Boeing 737 crash occurred just after a Boeing 737-200 took off from Lubango Airport at Lubango, Angola, on a regular domestic flight (flightnumber DT462) to Quatro de Fevereiro Airport in Luanda on November 8, 1983.[1][2] The aircraft had 126 passengers and four crew on board.[3]

The aircraft was at 200 feet (61 m) and climbing when it began to descend and turn left. The left wingtip hit the ground, and the aircraft broke apart and burst into flames. The wreckage came to rest 800 meters (2,625 feet) from the end of the runway at Lubango Airport. The crash killed all 130 people on board.

Cause

UNITA guerillas claimed to have shot down the aircraft—which they believed to be carrying only military personnel—with a surface-to-air missile to protest Angola's government.[4] Post-crash investigation of the aircraft's wreckage by the Angolan authorities revealed no conclusive evidence of missile damage, and the cause of the crash is officially considered to be a mechanical failure.[5]

References

  1. ↑ The Milwaukee Journal, 9. November 1983
  2. ↑ TAAG Angola Airways, timetable October 1983 (the only regular or scheduled TAAG flight leaving Lugango Airport on 8. November 1983 was flight DT462)
  3. ↑ Aviation Safety Network, 8. November 1983
  4. ↑ "Unita shoots down TAAG 737". FLIGHT International. 19 November 1983.
  5. ↑ Elias, Bartholomew (2009). Airport and Aviation Security: U.S. Policy and Strategy in the Age of Global Terrorism. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. p. 315. ISBN 1420070304.


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