Varig Flight 820

1973 plane crash in France

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Varig Flight 820

Deployment of emergency services at the crash site.

Accident
Date| 11 July 1973
Summary| Belly landing following in-flight fire of unknown source
Site| Near Orly Airport, Orly, Paris, France
48°45′N 2°24′E﻿ / ﻿48.750°N 2.400°E﻿ / 48.750; 2.400
Aircraft
Aircraft type| Boeing 707-320C
Operator| Varig
IATA flight No.| RG820
ICAO flight No.| VRG820
Call sign| VARIG 820
Registration| PP-VJZ
Flight origin| Galeão International Airport, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Stopover| Orly Airport, Paris, France
Destination| Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom
Occupants| 134
Passengers| 117
Crew| 17
Fatalities| 123
Injuries| 11
Survivors| 11

Varig Flight 820 was a flight of the Brazilian airline Varig that departed from Galeão International Airport in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 11 July 1973, for Orly Airport, in Paris, France. The plane, a Boeing 707, registration PP-VJZ, made an emergency landing in onion fields about five kilometres (3.1 mi; 2.7 nmi) from Orly Airport, due to smoke in the cabin from a fire in a lavatory. The fire caused 123 deaths; there were only 11 survivors (ten crew members and one passenger). Relief Captain Antonio Fuzimoto was the pilot who handled the controls and landed the plane in the field.[citation needed]

## Background

[edit]

The aircraft involved, while still in service with Seaboard World Airlines with registration N7322S. PP-VJK, an aircraft similar to the one involved. This aircraft would later crash as Varig Flight 797

### Aircraft

[edit]

The Boeing 707-320C registration PP-VJZ, serial number 19841, was manufactured in February 1968 and had flown 21,470 hours. The aircraft was originally meant to be sold to Seaboard World Airlines, but was bought by Varig prior to this taking place. Varig briefly leased it to Seaboard World Airlines, but otherwise owned and operated the aircraft for the entirety of its life. The aircraft had seating capacity for 124 passengers and was operating close to full on the fateful flight.[citation needed]

### Crew

[edit]

The crew aboard the flight consisted of four flight crew, four relief flight crew, and nine cabin crew. The primary flight crew consisted of Captain Gilberto Araújo da Silva, 49, First Officer Alvio Basso, 46, Flight Engineer Claunor Bello, 38, and Navigator Zilmar Gomes da Cunha, 43. Captain Araújo da Silva was highly experienced and had flown 17,959 hours, of which 4,642 hours were on the 707. First Officer Basso was also very experienced, with 12,613 flying hours, of which 5,055 hours were on the 707. Both Bello and Gomes da Cunha were also highly experienced airmen with 9,655 hours and 14,140 hours in total respectively; between them they had 8,113 hours on the 707.[citation needed]

The relief flight crew consisted of Captain Antonio Fuzimoto, 45, First Officer Ronald Utermoehl, 23, Flight Engineer Carlos Nato Diefenthaler, 38 and Navigator Salvador Ramos Heleno, 45. Relief Captain Fuzimoto was also very experienced, with 17,788 flying hours total, of which 3,221 were on the 707. Relief First Officer Utermoehl was much less experienced, with only 1,540 hours in total, of which only 788 were on the 707. Relief Flight Engineer Diefenthaler and Relief Navigator Heleno were both very experienced airmen, with 16,672 and 15,157 flying hours, respectively, and 17,859 total hours between them on the 707.[1]

## Accident

[edit]

Flight 820's problems began when a fire started in a rear lavatory. Crew members moved to the front of the airplane toward the emergency exit, as many passengers in the rear of the plane inhaled smoke. Prior to the forced landing, many of the passengers had already died of carbon monoxide poisoning and smoke inhalation. The aircraft landed in a field five kilometres (3.1 mi; 2.7 nmi) short of the runway, in a full-flap and gear-down configuration.[citation needed]

Of the 134 passengers and crew aboard the flight, ten crew and one passenger, 21-year-old Ricardo Trajano, survived. Of the crew, Captain Araújo da Silva, First Officer Basso, Flight Engineer Bello, Navigator Gomes da Cunha, Relief Captain Fuzimoto, Chief Purser Galleti and Attendants Pires de Oliveira and Piha were in the cockpit and evacuated from there, and Tersis and Brandão escaped out of the forward galley. Trajano was found unconscious with Relief Navigator Heleno, Attendant Balbino and another passenger; Balbino and the passenger died at the scene, whereas Heleno died in a hospital soon after.[citation needed] The captain of Flight 820 would later be involved in the disappearance of a Varig 707 cargo aircraft. A possible cause of the fire was that the lavatory waste bin contents caught fire after a lit cigarette was thrown into it. Consequently, the FAA issued AD 74-08-09 requiring "installation of placards prohibiting smoking in the lavatory and disposal of cigarettes in the lavatory waste receptacles; establishment of a procedure to announce to airplane occupants that smoking is prohibited in the lavatories; installation of ashtrays at certain locations; and repetitive inspections to ensure that lavatory waste receptacle doors operate correctly".[2]

## Passengers

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Most of the passengers on the aircraft were Brazilian. The only survivors were in the cockpit and the first several rows of seats. Of the 11 survivors, 10 were members of the crew;[3] the sole surviving passenger disobeyed instructions to remain in his seat.

Notable passengers who died included:

* Jörg Bruder, Olympic sailor
* Filinto Müller, President of the Senate of Brazil[3]
* Agostinho dos Santos, singer
* Júlio Delamare, sports journalist

## See also

[edit]

* France portal
* Brazil portal
* Aviation portal

* Air Canada Flight 797, another accident caused by a fire in the aircraft lavatory
* Saudia Flight 163
* ValuJet Flight 592
* Varig Flight 967, another flight that was piloted by Captain Araujo da Silva that disappeared over the Pacific Ocean.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Official report
2. ^ Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 707-345C PP-VJZ Paris-Orly Airport (ORY)". aviation-safety.net. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
3. ^ a b "Death in the Air: Fire and Fumes." Time. 23 July 1973. Retrieved on 8 December 2010.(subscription required)

## Further reading

[edit]

* "Varig 707 had toilet fire." Flight International. 17 April 1976. p. 995.
* "Caixa-preta: O relato de três desastres aéreos brasileiros" Objetiva Ed. 2000, 328pages ISBN 8539003031

## External links

[edit]

External image

Photo search for Varig Boeing 707 PP-VJZ at Airliners.net

* Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network
* FAA Airworthiness Directive Archived 17 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine regarding placarding
* (in French) Official report of the inquiry commission of the French secretariat of transportation (Archive)

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Varig

Subsidiaries|

* Nordeste Linhas Aéreas Regionais
* Rio Sul Serviços Aéreos Regionais
* Serviços Aéreos Cruzeiro do Sul
* Varig Logística

Accidents
and
incidents|

* Flight 810 (1962)
* Flight 837 (1967)
* Flight 820 (1973)
* Flight 967 (1979)
* Flight 797 (1987)
* Flight 254 (1989)

Related|

* Flex Linhas Aéreas
* Voo da Amizade

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Aviation accidents and incidents in France

Before
1900|

* Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier (June 1785)
* Sophie Blanchard (July 1819)
* Zénith (April 1875)

1900s|

* Patrie (November 1907)
* La République (September 1909)

1910s|

* Léon Delagrange (January 1910)

1920s|

* Picardie mid-air collision (April 1922)
* Air Union Farman Goliath crash (May 1923)
* KLM Fokker F.III Forêt de Mormal crash (June 1925)
* America (July 1927)

1930s|

* R101 (October 1930)

1940s|

* Sabena DC-3 Crash (December 1949)

1950s|

* Air India Flight 245 (November 1950)
* Tête de l'Obiou C-54 crash (November 1950)
* Air France SNCASE Languedoc crash (March 1952)
* Air France Flight 178 (September 1953)
* Hijacking of the FLN plane* (October 1956)
* Paris DC-6 crash (November 1956)
* TAI Flight 307 (September 1959)

1960s|

* Air France Flight 406* (May 1961)
* Derby Aviation crash (October 1961)
* Air France Flight 007 (June 1962)
* Air France Flight 117 (June 1962)
* Malév Flight 355 (November 1962)
* Air Inter Flight 2611 (August 1963)
* Air India Flight 101 (January 1966)
* Air Ferry DC-4 accident (June 1967)
* Air France Flight 212 (March 1968)
* Air France Flight 1611 (September 1968)

1970s|

* Pakistan International Airlines Flight 712 (December 1971)
* Air Inter Flight 696Y (October 1972)
* Nantes mid-air collision (March 1973)
* Paris Air Show Tu-144 crash (June 1973)
* Varig Flight 820 (July 1973)
* Pan Am Flight 816 (July 1973)
* Turkish Airlines Flight 981 (March 1974)
* TWA Flight 355 (September 1976)

1980s|

* Aer Lingus Flight 164 (May 1981)
* Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308 (December 1981)
* Air Littoral Flight 1919 (December 1987)
* TAT Flight 230 (March 1988)
* Air France Flight 296Q (June 1988)

1990s|

* Air Inter Flight 148 (January 1992)
* Trans-Air Service Flight 671 (March 1992)
* Lufthansa CityLine Flight 5634 (January 1993)
* Airbus Industrie Flight 129 (June 1994)
* Air France Flight 8969 (December 1994)
* Proteus Airlines Flight 706 (July 1998)

2000s|

* Air France Flight 4590 (July 2000)
* Air Caraïbes Flight 1501 (March 2001)
* Brit Air Flight 5672 (June 2003)
* Air Moorea Flight 1121 (August 2007)
* XL Airways Germany Flight 888T (November 2008)

2010s|

* Germanwings Flight 9525 (March 2015)

2020s|

* Touques Airbus AS350B helicopter crash (March 2021)

Includes overseas departments and overseas territories
* occurred in French Algeria, now an independent country

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Aviation accidents and incidents in 1973 (1973)

Jan 21

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Jan 22

Kano Nigeria Airways Boeing 707 crash

Jan 29

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Feb 19

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Jun 3

Paris Air Show Tu-144 crash

Jun 10

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Jun 20

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Jul 11

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Pan Am Flight 816

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