Zurich – Geneva – Funchal

On December 18, 1977 at 08:14 PM, Zurich – Geneva – Funchal experienced a crash involving Sud-Aviation SE-210 Caravelle, operated by SATA - Société Anonyme de Transport Aérien Genève, with the event recorded near Funchal Madeira.

The flight was categorized as charter/taxi (non scheduled revenue flight) and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a lake, sea, ocean, river crash site.

57 people were known to be on board, 36 fatalities were recorded, 21 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 63.2%.

Crew on board: 5, crew fatalities: 1, passengers on board: 52, passenger fatalities: 35, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. Flight VS730 was an international charter service from Zurich to Funchal with an intermediate stop at Geneva-Cointrin Airport, Switzerland. The flight crew consisted of two captain. A new captain was in the left-hand seat and was piloting the aircraft. The second captain who was seating in the right-hand seat was acting as pilot-in-command, pilot responsible for the initiation to Funchal, route check pilot and co-pilot. Initiation of the new captain was necessary because of the difficult approach and landing at Funchal. However, this initiation ought to have been made by day. The aircraft departed Geneva at 1626LT bound for Madeira Island. At 1938 the crew contacted Madeira control, reporting Rose Point at FL330; the aircraft was cleared to leave this flight level at 1941. The crew then asked for descent instructions and received clearance to descend to FL50; it was requested to contact control again when this level was reached or when overflying the Porto Santo (PST) NDB. At 1955 the crew reported being overhead the PST at FL85. The aircraft was instructed to continue its descent to FL50, then to contact Funchal approach control. At 1957 the crew contacted Funchal approach control, which stated that runway 06 was in service and cleared the aircraft to descend to 3,500 ft, the QNH being 1014.0 mb. After being cleared for the approach the crew descended below the 720 feet permitted during circling, even though they had lost sight of the runway. The pilots, had lost sight of the runway lights at the end of the downwind leg and at the beginning of the base leg, when the aircraft was already flying below 200 feet. The radio altimeter had probably been preset to 200 feet, but the pilots did not check its indications. The aircraft touched the water surface relatively smoothly in a flat attitude, bounced then touched the water surface two additional times and came to rest 4 km short of runway 06 threshold. The center of the fuselage fractured, causing water to enter the cabin. Few passengers were able to jump into water and the airplane sank by a depth of 600 metres two minutes after final impact. 17 bodies were never recovered as well as both CVR and VFR recording systems.

Aircraft reference details include registration HB-ICK, MSN 200, year of manufacture 1965.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 32.6759°, -16.9009°.