Abidjan - Rio de Janeiro

On January 3, 1987 at 01:45 AM, Abidjan - Rio de Janeiro experienced a crash involving Boeing 707, operated by VARIG - Viação Aérea Rio Grandense, with the event recorded near Abidjan Lagunes.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

51 people were known to be on board, 50 fatalities were recorded, 1 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 98.0%.

Crew on board: 12, crew fatalities: 12, passengers on board: 39, passenger fatalities: 38, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. About 20 minutes after takeoff from Abidjan-Port-Bouet Airport, while cruising over the Atlantic Ocean, the fire alarm on engine n°1 sounded. As the fuel temperature was abnormally high, it was decided to shut down the engine. The captain declared an emergency and was cleared to return. On approach, he was cleared to land on runway 03 but preferred to land on runway 21 that was equipped with an ILS system. After completing a back circuit by night but in relative good visibility, the airplane passed over the Abidjan VOR then the pilot-in-command initiated a left turn when the stall warning sounded. While completing a left turn in a flaps and landing gear up configuration, the airplane banked left, stalled and crashed in the forest of Akakro located about 10 km northeast of Abidjan Airport, near the city of Bingerville. A passenger was seriously injured while 50 other occupants were killed.

Aircraft reference details include registration PP-VJK, MSN 19822, year of manufacture 1968.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 5.6756°, -4.5697°.