Avianca Flight 203
{{short description|1989 airliner bombing}}
{{Infobox aircraft occurrence
| name = Avianca Flight 203
| image = Avianca Boeing 727-21 HK-1803.jpg
| image_upright = 1.2
| alt =
| caption = HK-1803, the aircraft involved in the bombing
| occurrence_type = Bombing
| date = November 27, 1989
| summary = In-flight breakup due to terrorist bombing
| site = Cerro Canoas, Soacha, Colombia
| coordinates = {{coord|4|33|30|N|74|15|45|W|type:event_region:CO|display=inline,title}}
| total_fatalities = 110
| ground_fatalities = 3
| aircraft_type = Boeing 727-21
| aircraft_name =
| operator = Avianca
| IATA = AV203
| ICAO = AVA203
| callsign = AVIANCA 203
| tail_number = HK-1803
| origin = El Dorado Int'l Airport
| stopover =
| stopover0 =
| last_stopover =
| destination = Alfonso Bonilla Aragón Int'l Airport
| occupants = 107
| passengers = 101
| crew = 6
| fatalities = 107
| injuries =
| missing =
| survivors = 0
}}
{{Campaignbox Colombian conflict|state=collapsed}}Avianca Flight 203 was a Colombian domestic passenger flight from El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá to Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport in Cali, Colombia. It was destroyed by a bomb over the municipality of Soacha on November 27, 1989. All 107 people on board as well as three people on the ground were killed. The bombing had been ordered by the Medellín drug cartel.
Aircraft and crew
The aircraft was a Boeing 727-21 with registration number HK-1803, serial number 19035, and line number 272. The aircraft was built in 1966, and had its maiden flight on May 19 of the same year. The aircraft was delivered to Pan Am on May 28, and was registered as N326PA. Avianca acquired the aircraft in November 1975, when it was re-registered as HK-1803.
The captain was José Ignacio Ossa Aristizábal, the first officer was Fernando Pizarro Esguerra, and the flight engineer was Luis Jairo Castiblanco Vargas. There were three flight attendants on board.
Flight
Flight 203 took off as scheduled at 7:13 a.m. Five minutes into the flight, at a speed of {{convert|794|km/h|mph}} and an altitude of {{convert|13000|ft|m|abbr=}}, an explosive charge detonated, causing fuel vapors in the empty central fuel tank to ignite. Eyewitnesses on the ground reported seeing fire erupt out of the right side of the aircraft's fuselage. A second blast ripped the airliner apart; the nose section separated from the tail section, which went down in flames. The wreckage was scattered in a {{convert|3|mi|adj=on|spell=in}} radius around the town of Soacha. All 107 people on board were killed, as well as three people on the ground who were hit by falling debris.
Background
An investigation determined that plastic explosives were used to destroy the plane.{{cite news |last=González |first=Jorge |date=28 November 1989 |title=Más de cien muertos al estallar en vuelo un avión colombiano |language=es |trans-title=More than a hundred dead when a Colombian plane explodes in flight |volume=86 |page=17 |newspaper=Diario ABC |publisher=Diario ABC, S.L. (Grupo Vocento/Vocento, S.A.) |issue=27068 |publication-place=Madrid, Spain |editor1-last=Elvira |editor1-first=Enrique |url=https://www.abc.es/archivo/periodicos/abc-madrid-19891128-17.html |issn=1136-0232 |editor2-first=Isaac |editor2-last=Blasco |editor3-first=Álvaro |editor3-last=Martínez |editor4-first=Fernández-Miranda |editor4-last=Juan |editor5-first=Alexis |editor5-last=Rodríguez |editor6-first=Eduardo |editor6-last=de Rivas |editor7-first=Jorge |editor7-last=Sanz |editor8-first=Isabel |editor8-last=Gutiérrez |editor9-first=María Jesús |editor9-last=Pérez |editor10-first=Nuria |editor10-last=Ramírez |editor11-first=Sebastián |editor11-last=Basco |editor12-last=Luca de Tena |editor12-first=Catalina |editor13-first=Bieito |editor13-last=Rubido Ramonde}} Drug king Pablo Escobar, of the Medellín drug cartel, planned the bombing in the lead-up to the 1990 elections, hoping the bomb plot would kill presidential candidate César Gaviria.{{Rp|80}} One account states that two unidentified men dressed in suits who worked for Escobar carried the bomb on board. The men sat in seats 18A and 18K, located above the main fuel tank. At the last moment, one of the men left the aircraft, while his partner stayed on board and was killed in the bombing. A young Colombian man named Alberto Prieto was duped into staying on the flight and activating the bomb once the aircraft had become airborne thus unknowingly killing himself; he had been told the device was just a recorder he had to turn on to record the conversation of a nearby couple of passengers; because of this, the man had been nicknamed "El Suizo", or "The Swiss", in reference to his role as a "suicide" bomber.{{cite news |last=Viana |first=Israel |date=27 November 2019 |title=Avianca 203: lo que no te contaron de los 110 muertos (y sus asesinos) del peor atentado de Pablo Escobar |language=es |trans-title=Avianca 203: what they didn't tell you about the 110 dead (and their murderers) of Pablo Escobar's worst attack |work=Diario ABC |publisher=Diario ABC, S.L. (Grupo Vocento/Vocento, S.A.) |publication-place=Madrid, Spain |editor1-last=Elvira |editor1-first=Enrique |url=https://www.abc.es/historia/abci-avianca-203-no-contaron-110-muertos-y-asesinos-peor-atentado-pablo-escobar-201911262009_noticia.html |access-date=5 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191204112403/https://www.abc.es/historia/abci-avianca-203-no-contaron-110-muertos-y-asesinos-peor-atentado-pablo-escobar-201911262009_noticia.html |archive-date=4 December 2019 |issn=1136-0232 |editor2-first=Isaac |editor2-last=Blasco |editor3-first=Álvaro |editor3-last=Martínez |editor4-first=Fernández-Miranda |editor4-last=Juan |editor5-first=Alexis |editor5-last=Rodríguez |editor6-first=Eduardo |editor6-last=de Rivas |editor7-first=Jorge |editor7-last=Sanz |editor8-first=Isabel |editor8-last=Gutiérrez |editor9-first=María Jesús |editor9-last=Pérez |editor10-first=Nuria |editor10-last=Ramírez |editor11-first=Sebastián |editor11-last=Basco |editor12-last=Luca de Tena |editor12-first=Catalina |editor13-first=Bieito |editor13-last=Rubido Ramonde}}
Gaviria was not on the aircraft, despite Escobar's expectations, and went on to be elected president.{{Rp|81}} Two Americans were among the dead, prompting the Bush administration to begin Intelligence Support Activity operations to find Escobar.{{Rp|81}}
Nine days after the bombing of the plane, the DAS Building bombing, presumably also ordered by the Medellín Cartel, killed 63 people in Bogotá.{{cite news |last=McFadden |first=Robert D. |date=December 20, 1994 |title=Drug Trafficker Convicted Of Blowing Up Jetliner |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/20/nyregion/drug-trafficker-convicted-of-blowing-up-jetliner.html |access-date=26 November 2018 |newspaper=The New York Times}}{{Cite news |date=1995-05-05 |title=Man Who Bombed Avianca Flight Sentenced to Life |url=https://www.apnews.com/e6ed187c3137830e026c3e843677587a |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181031091202/https://www.apnews.com/e6ed187c3137830e026c3e843677587a |archive-date=2018-10-31 |access-date=2018-10-30 |work=Associated Press}}
Dandeny Muñoz Mosquera, the chief assassin for the Medellín Cartel, was convicted in 1994 in United States District Court of having been involved in the bombing and various other crimes, and was sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences.
Later events
On November 28, 2016, the Colombian newspaper El Espectador started publishing an investigative report, consisting of 8 chapters, on Flight 203. It argues that the explosion was caused by a malfunctioning fuel pump inside a tank which had been reported several times before. The report was heavily criticized by Avianca and family members of the victims.
== In popular culture ==
This event is dramatized in Season 1, Episode 6 of Narcos (2015).{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}
See also
{{Portal|Colombia|Aviation|1980s}}
References
{{Reflist|refs=
{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byTR6eyCjf8 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/byTR6eyCjf8| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|title=Vuelo 1803, 20 años después|website=YouTube|date=27 November 2009 |publisher=Testigo Directo|language=es|trans-title=Flight 1803, 20 years later|access-date=2020-04-13}}{{cbignore}}
{{cite book |title=Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw |last=Bowden |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Bowden |date=2001 |publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press |isbn=0-87113-783-6 |location=New York, United States |edition=1st }}
{{cite news|url=http://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/objetivo-gaviria/25450-3|title=OBJETIVO: GAVIRIA|date=8 May 1995|work=Semana|language=es|trans-title=OBJECTIVE: GAVIRIA|access-date=2020-04-13}}
{{cite news|url=https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/nacional/avianca-203-historia-nunca-nos-contaron-articulo-667717|title=Avianca 203, la historia que nunca nos contaron|last1=Hoffman|first1=Thomas|newspaper=El Espectador|last2=Correa|first2=Pablo|language=es|trans-title=Avianca 203, the story they never told us|last3=Silva|first3=Sergio|access-date=2020-04-13}}
{{cite news|url=https://www.elespectador.com/static_specials/31/avianca-203/capitulo5.html|title=Avianca 203, la historia que nunca nos contaron. Capitulo 5: El detalle inconveniente|last1=Hoffman|first1=Thomas|date=December 2, 2016|newspaper=El Espectador|last2=Correa|first2=Pablo|language=es|trans-title=Avianca 203, the story they never told us. Chapter 5: The inconvenient detail|last3=Silva|first3=Sergio|access-date=2020-04-13|archive-date=2020-01-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200128172123/https://www.elespectador.com/static_specials/31/avianca-203/capitulo5.html|url-status=dead}}
{{cite news|url=http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/investigacion/familiares-de-fallecidos-de-avion-de-avianca-1989-respo-articulo-668067|title=Familiares de fallecidos de avión de Avianca, en 1989, responden a investigación de El Espectador|newspaper=El Espectador|language=es|trans-title=Family members of Avianca's plane dead in 1989 respond to El Espectador's investigation|access-date=2020-04-13}}
}}
External links
- {{ASN accident|id=19891127-0|type=Criminal Occurrence}}
{{Aviation accidents and incidents in Colombia}}
{{Aviation incidents and accidents in 1989}}
Category:1989 murders in Colombia
Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in 1989
Category:Terrorist incidents in South America in 1989
Category:Terrorist incidents in Colombia in the 1980s
Category:November 1989 in South America
Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in Colombia
Category:Avianca accidents and incidents
Category:Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 727
Category:Failed assassination attempts in South America
Category:20th-century mass murder in Colombia
Category:Organized crime events in Colombia
Category:1989 disasters in Colombia