Independent Air Flight 1851
N7231T, the aircraft involved, seen at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in 1985 in a previous livery | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 8 February 1989 |
| Summary | Controlled flight into terrain during descent |
| Site | Pico Alto, Santa Maria Island, Azores, Portugal 36°58′53″N 25°05′28″W / 36.981475°N 25.091008°W |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 707-331B |
| Operator | Independent Air / wetleased by Dominair |
| IATA flight No. | ID1851 / YU1851 |
| ICAO flight No. | IDN1851 |
| Call sign | INDEPENDENT AIR 1851 |
| Registration | N7231T |
| Flight origin | Orio al Serio Airport, Bergamo, Italy |
| Stopover | Santa Maria Airport, Santa Maria, Azores, Portugal |
| Destination | Punta Cana International Airport, Dominican Republic |
| Occupants | 144 |
| Passengers | 137 |
| Crew | 7 |
| Fatalities | 144 |
| Survivors | 0 |
On 8 February 1989, Independent Air Flight 1851, a Boeing 707 on an American charter flight from Bergamo, Italy, to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, struck Pico Alto while on approach to Santa Maria Airport in the Azores for a scheduled stopover. The aircraft was destroyed, with the loss of all 144 people on board, resulting in the deadliest plane crash in Portugal's history. All of the passengers on board were Italian and all of the crew were Americans. The crash is also known as "The disaster of the Azores" (Italian: Il disastro delle Azzorre).