Avianca Flight 203

Infobox Airliner accident
name = Avianca Flight 203
Date = November 27 1989
Type = Terrorist Bomb
Site = Colombia
Fatalities = 110
Injuries = 0
Aircraft Type= Boeing 727
Origin = El Dorado International Airport
Destination = Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport
Operator = Avianca Airlines
Tail Number = HK 1803
Passengers = 101
Crew = 6
Survivors = 0

Avianca Airlines Flight 203 was a Boeing 727 that was destroyed by a bomb over Colombia on November 27, 1989.

The aircraft took off from the Colombian capital Bogotá en route to Cali. It was in the air five minutes when an explosive charge detonated on board, igniting fuel vapors in an empty fuel tank: the blast ripped the airliner apart,first the nose section tore off other remains including the tail section went down in flames. All 107 people on the aircraft were killed, as well as three people on the ground due to falling debris.

The bombing of Flight 203 was the worst single criminal attack in the many decades of Colombian violence. The Medellín drug cartel claimed responsibility for planting the bomb, saying it was targeting César Gaviria Trujillo, the leading candidate in the presidential elections, although he was not on the plane. Dandeny Muñoz Mosquera, the chief assassin for the Medellín Cartel, was convicted in a United States District Court for the bombing and was sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences.

References

* [http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19891127-0 Accident description]
* [http://www.westword.com/2001-05-17/news/the-hit-man-nobody-knows/ The Hit Man Nobody Knows]