Disaster Convair 990 in Tenerife

CV-990-30A-5 with tail number EC-BZR and factory number 30-10-25 was released in 1962 ^{[1] [2]} .

The crew consisted of seven people, almost all Spaniards, except one German stewardess, but who had Spanish citizenship. The crew was as follows ^[3] :

• The aircraft commander is Daniel Nuñez .
• The co - pilot is Francisco Saavedra ( Spanish: Francisco Saavedra ).
• Flight Engineer - José Alberto Sanz .
• Stewardesses :
  • Carmen Prieto ( Spanish: Carmen Prieto ),
  • Nuria Cabré ( Spanish: Nuria Cabré ),
  • Hessine Mordass ( Spanish: Gessine Mordass ),
  • Carmen Rivas ( Spanish: Carmen Rivas ).

The aircraft performed a charter flight BX275 from Santa Cruz de Tenerife to Munich , and on board were 148 German passengers. They arrived in Tenerife on the Greek cruise ship Jason , and at 05:30 arrived at the airport. Another passenger overslept, and therefore did not get on the flight. At that time, fog was in the airport itself. At a quarter to seven in the morning (06:45) the aircraft began to disperse, and then broke away from the strip . But as soon as the airliner began to rise, as after a few seconds, when the height was reached 90 meters, it began to quickly lose altitude, and 325 meters from the end of the strip and 15 meters to the left of its continuation axis crashed into the ground and exploded. Rescuers and eyewitnesses who came to the aid among the wreckage found one survivor, but later in the hospital he died from his injuries. Thus, all 155 people on board the airliner died ^[4] . At the time of the events, it was the largest plane crash in Spain , in 2013 it was the third, after a collision at Los Rodeos airport (also in Tenerife), and the Boeing 747 crash near Madrid . The largest disaster involving the Convair 990 and the history of Spanish aviation ^[1] .

The investigation commission called the cause of the accident a loss of control caused by disorientation of the pilots in conditions of almost zero visibility ^[1] .