As aviation agencies all over the world focus on the crash of a state-of-the-art Boeing 737 MAX 8 in Ethiopia, Colombian officials are pondering the fate of one of the oldest airframes in regular revenue service. A Laser Aereo DC-3, which has flown pretty much continuously since it was delivered to the U.S. Air Force as a C-47 in 1942, crashed in central Colombia on Saturday, killing all 14 people aboard. It was on a scheduled flight from the southern city of San Jose del Guaviare to central Villavicencio and went down about halfway through the flight.
The crew made a distress call about 10:40 a.m. and the plane went down in San Carlos de Guaroa. Colombia’s Special Administrative Unit of Civil Aeronautics is investigating and said the aircraft’s certification and the crew’s credentials were all up to date.The aircraft flew in the U.S. for decades, spent some time in Spain and may have been sold to the Colombian airline by a Canadian charter firm. It flew in the Second World War for the Air Force as 42-23838 and was a C-47-35-DL model. The passengers and crew were all Colombians.
