SAETA Flight 011 (1976)

SAETA Flight 011 was a scheduled passenger flight operated by SAETA Air Ecuador between Quito and Cuenca, using a Vickers Viscount 785D aircraft. On 15 August 1976, the flight was reported missing near the Chimborazo stratovolcano while carrying 55 passengers and four crew members. Searches for the plane would be carried out for 26 years, until the wreckage of the aircraft was officially located in February 2003.

The pilot's last contact with the control tower took place over the city of Ambato. As a result of the remote location of the accident site, the wreckage was hidden below the glacier of Chimborazo, making location of the plane prohibitively difficult. The place of impact was declared a graveyard, and the remains were not recovered. This led to intense speculation over the cause of the disappearance, including rumors of a potential hijacking, as well as some controversy when the wreckage was located.

The plane was eventually found at 5,310 meters (17,420 feet) by two members of the Nuevos Horizontes mountaineering club, Pablo Chiquiza and Flavio Armas, while exploring a new hiking route to the summit of Chimborazo. However, they did not report it immediately. The discovery wasn't confirmed until February 2003, when a team hired by the television network Teleamazonas went up the volcano to record a video of the wreckage. Human remains were found, as well as newspapers from the day the plane disappeared, and identification cards of known passengers.