TAME Flight 173
HC-BIG, the aircraft involved in the accident, photographed in May 1981 | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 11 July 1983 |
| Summary | Controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) due to pilot error |
| Site | Bashún Hill, Ricaurte parish, near Mariscal Lamar International Airport, Cuenca, Ecuador 2°51′55.3″S 78°56′59.5″W / 2.865361°S 78.949861°W |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 737-2V2 Advanced |
| Aircraft name | Ciudad de Loja |
| Operator | TAME |
| IATA flight No. | EQ173 |
| ICAO flight No. | TAE173 |
| Call sign | TAME 173 |
| Registration | HC-BIG |
| Flight origin | Mariscal Sucre International Airport, Quito, Ecuador |
| Destination | Mariscal Lamar International Airport, Cuenca, Ecuador |
| Occupants | 119 |
| Passengers | 111 |
| Crew | 8 |
| Fatalities | 119 |
| Survivors | 0 |
TAME Flight 173, a Boeing 737-2V2 Advanced operated by Ecuador's national airline TAME, flying on a domestic route from the now-closed Mariscal Sucre International Airport in Quito to Mariscal Lamar International Airport in Cuenca, crashed on 11 July 1983 into a hill during final approach just 1 mile (1.6 km; 0.87 nmi) from its final destination, killing all 119 people on board.
The crash was the deadliest crash in the history of TAME, and it remains as the deadliest aircraft accident in the history of Ecuador. An investigation later determined that the flight crashed due to the flight crew's lack of experience on the aircraft type, which caused a controlled flight into terrain.