Aviation’s history books are full of mysteries, some of which are solved and others yet to be figured out. Sometimes, we hear of those cases where aircraft have disappeared and were only found many years later. Such is the case with SAETA Flight 232, which involved a 26-year search and frustrated stakeholders. This week marks that tragic anniversary.

Ecuadorian carrier

SAETA (La Sociedad Anónima Ecuatoriana de Transportes Aéreos S.A.) was an Ecuadorian private airline that operated from 1966 to 2000. It was founded by the Dunn family and had its headquarters in Quito before eventually moving the base of operations to Guayaquil.

The early 1990s was a period of substantial activity for the carrier, which flew to numerous destinations in North and South America. Its most profitable destinations included Los Angeles, New York City, Miami, Panama City, Caracas, Bogota, Lima, Santiago, and Buenos Aires. Financial and political headwinds impacted the company later that decade, and the Ecuadorian airline eventually ceased operations in February 2000.

SAETA Caravelle Volpati
SAETA flew a variety of aircraft, including this Sud Aviation Caravelle. Photo: Christian Volpati via Wikimedia Commons

The aircraft

SAETA featured a diverse inventory of aircraft in its fleet, including four Sud Aviation Caravelles (operated from 1975 to 1986) and the same number of Vickers Viscount 700s, which the airline began to introduce in 1969 and retired in 1980.

The Viscount was a British medium-range turboprop first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrong. It entered service in 1953 and was the first turboprop-powered airliner. The aircraft was popular for cabin conditions, including pressurization, vibration and noise reduction, and panoramic windows. It became one of the most successful and profitable of the first post-war transport aircraft.

Some specifications for SAETA’s Viscount featured in this article include:

  • Registration: HC-ARS
  • MSN: 377
  • First flight: 1958
Vickers Viscount aicraft on ground
South American carriers (like PLUNA pictured here) incorporated Viscounts in their fleets.  Photo: RuthAS via Wikimedia Commons.
 

Timeline of events

On August 15, 1976, a Viscount operating as SAETA Flight 232 departed Quito at 08:06 hours bound for Cuenca. There were 55 passengers and four crew onboard the turboprop with a planned flight route over mountainous terrain. All seemed normal until air traffic control lost radio contact with the flight at 08:27 when the crew reported flying over the city of Ambato at 18,000 feet.

Ambato is located in the central Andean valley of Ecuador and sits beneath several tall mountains. It is the capital of the province of Tungurahua, at an elevation of 8,455 feet (2,577 meters) above sea level.

Realizing that the aircraft failed to arrive at Cuenca, emergency search operations began. One more plausible suspicion was that the plane had crashed somewhere in a nearby mountain range. So, a massive search was conducted by air and land throughout the Amazon and all along the flight-planned route. Despite an intensive search, the wreckage was not found for several years. Twenty-six long years to be precise.

Cockpit of a Vickers Viscount
The cockpit of this Viscount shows the older technology the SAETA pilots may have had available. Photo: Rotatebot via Wikimedia Commons.
 

Conspiracy theories abound

During the two and a half decades the wreckage was lost, numerous theories about the whereabouts of the Viscount and its occupants circulated. Some of the most interesting hypotheses ranged from extraterrestrial abductions to Ecuador’s version of The Bermuda Triangle. More plausible was the suspicion of a guerilla hijacking since another of SAETA’s Viscount was hijacked by six people on October 20, 1971, and eventually landed at Mariscal Lamar International Airport.

A contentious discovery

The plane was eventually found at 17,420 feet (5,310 meters) in the García Moreno glacier near the Chimborazo volcano.

In October 2002, Pablo Chíquiza and Flavio Armas, two members of the Nuevos Horizontes mountaineering club, helped mark the exact crash site after fellow mountaineer Miguel Cazar had previously come across it. The rest of the story involves accusations of government officials dragging their feet and overlooking the location during previous searches. Several parties pointed fingers at each other, while the families of those lost in the crash experienced a bittersweet moment of reliving the pain of a tragic loss while also receiving some closure after the discovery of their loved ones’ remains.

Chimborazo volcano
Mountaineers found the wreckage of flight 232 near the Chimborazo Volcano. Photo: David Torres Costales via Wikimedia Commons.
 

Unfortunate coincidences

There are some unfortunate coincidences between this accident and others. For example, this accident was eerily duplicated in three ways just a few years later.

Another SAETA Viscount crashed while flying between Quito and Cuenca. On April 23, 1979, an aircraft registered as HC-AVP crashed in the Pastaza Province, killing all 57 people onboard. The wreckage of this aircraft also took several years to locate. The flight was considered missing until 1984, when the debris was discovered.