The 1938 Santa Ana air show disaster occurred on 24 July 1938 at a military review on the Campo de Marte in the Santa Ana district of Bogota, Colombia. During the review, a Curtiss Hawk II biplane of the Colombian Air Force piloted by Lieutenant César Abadia performed a stunt before crashing into a grandstand and then into the crowd.
Accident | |
---|---|
Date | 24 July 1938 |
Summary | Pilot error |
Site | Campo de Marte, Bogota, Colombia 04°41′07″N 074°02′15″W / 4.68528°N 74.03750°W |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Curtiss Hawk II |
Operator | Colombian Air Force |
Crew | 1 |
Fatalities | 53 (including 52 on ground)[1] |
Injuries | 100+ (on ground) |
The pilot attempted to fly between the presidential stand and the stand for diplomats when he miscalculated the distance and the aircraft's wing-tip struck the diplomatic stand. The Hawk II destroyed part of the roof of the presidential stand and then careened through the crowd bursting into flames before it came to a stop upside down.[2] Over fifty people, including civilians and soldiers were killed, and over a hundred injured.[3] Among those in the presidential stand but uninjured were the outgoing Colombian President Alfonso López Pumarejo and his successor Eduardo Santos.[4] Among the wounded was Misael Pastrana Borrero, a future president of Colombia.