Rio de Janeiro - Rio de Janeiro

On December 12, 1961 at 04:00 PM, Rio de Janeiro - Rio de Janeiro experienced a crash involving Curtiss C-46 Commando, operated by VARIG - Viação Aérea Rio Grandense, with the event recorded near Itaipu Rio de Janeiro.

The flight was categorized as training and the reported phase was flight at a lake, sea, ocean, river crash site.

2 people were known to be on board, 0 fatalities were recorded, 2 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 0.0%.

Crew on board: 2, crew fatalities: 0, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. The crew departed Rio de Janeiro-Santos Dumont for a local training flight. En route, the pilot voluntarily shut down the left engine to simulate a failure. As the crew elected to feather its propeller, the prop went into reverse. The crew decided to return to Santos Dumont Airport but as he was unable to maintain a safe altitude, he decided to ditch the aircraft 50 meters off the Itaipu beach. Both occupants were rescued while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

Aircraft reference details include registration PP-VBM, MSN 134, year of manufacture 1944.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately -22.9486°, -43.0302°.