1938 Santa Ana air show disaster
 A similar Hawk II of the Colombian Air Force | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 24 July 1938 |
| Summary | Pilot error |
| Site | Campo de Marte, Bogota, Colombia |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Curtiss Hawk II |
| Operator | Colombian Air Force |
| Crew | 1 |
| Fatalities | 53 (including 52 on ground)[1] |
| Injuries | 100+ (on ground) |
The 1938 Santa Ana air show disaster occurred on 24 July 1938 at a military review on the Campo de Marte in the Santa Ana district of Bogota, Colombia. During the review, a Curtiss Hawk II biplane of the Colombian Air Force piloted by Lieutenant César Abadia performed a stunt before crashing into a grandstand and then into the crowd.
The pilot attempted to fly between the presidential stand and the stand for diplomats when he miscalculated the distance and the aircraft's wing-tip struck the diplomatic stand. The Hawk II destroyed part of the roof of the presidential stand and then careered through the crowd bursting into flames before it came to a stop upside down.[2] Over fifty people, including civilians and soldiers were killed, and over a hundred injured.[3] Among those in the presidential stand but uninjured were the outgoing Colombian President Alfonso López Pumarejo and his successor Eduardo Santos.[4] Among the wounded was Misael Pastrana Borrero, a future president of Colombia. The accident was the deadliest air crash in the world since the deaths of 73 people in the loss of the United States Navy airship USS Akron in 1933.[citation needed]
See also
- List of air show accidents and incidents
- Sknyliv air show disaster – another air show disaster caused by a single military aircraft and resulting in over 50 fatalities
References
- ^ "Accident Details". Plane Crash info.com. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
- ^ "Plane's Crash Into Crowd – 140 Killed and Injured". The Times. No. 48056. London. 26 July 1938. p. 12. template uses deprecated parameter(s) (help)
- ^ "Accident Synopsis – 1938-28". planecrashinfo.com. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
- ^ "Plane crashes into crowd as number killed". The Advertiser. 25 July 1938. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
External links