Buenos Aires – Santiago de Chile – Panama City – Miami

On August 4, 1979 at 12:00 AM, Buenos Aires – Santiago de Chile – Panama City – Miami experienced a crash involving Curtiss C-46 Commando, operated by Aircraft Line Maintenance, with the event recorded near Mt Tupungato Mendoza.

The flight was categorized as delivery and the reported phase was flight at a mountains crash site.

5 people were known to be on board, 5 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

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

After being bought by a company based in Miami, the aircraft was transferred from Buenos Aires to Miami on a delivery flight via Santiago de Chile and Panama City. En route to Santiago, while cruising at an altitude of 5,000 meters, the airplane struck the slope of Mt Tupungato (6,750 meters high) located southwest of Mendoza, Argentina. The wreckage was found two years later by a Chilean rescue team. The aircraft was destroyed upon impact and all five occupants were killed.

Aircraft reference details include registration N8040Y, MSN 30323, year of manufacture 1944.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately -33.3724°, -69.1480°.