What happened
In the early morning hours, an Avianca flight (service AV626) departed from Runway 04 at Villavicencio-La Vanguardia Airport. The aircraft was traveling toward Orocué with scheduled stops in Yopal and Trinidad, carrying a total of 17 people, including 14 passengers and 3 crew members.
Approximately fifteen minutes after the initial departure, a second Avianca DC-3, registered HK-1341, took off from the same airport. Shortly after 06:30LT, while flying in clear weather conditions, the pilot of the HK-1341 attempted to close the distance with the first aircraft. This maneuver resulted in a mid-air collision between the two planes.
Following the impact, both aircraft entered an uncontrolled descent and crashed onto Mt Las Polomas, located near the village of Villapacelly, roughly 71 km northeast of the departure airport. The impact destroyed both aircraft, and there were 38 fatalities among the occupants of both flights.
Findings
Official investigations identified several contributing factors to the disaster. The primary cause was a lack of discipline by the pilot of HK-1341, who performed a reaching maneuver that violated established requirements in the Aeronautical Regulations Manual. Additionally, investigators noted that the flight crews were not in an optimal psycho-physical state for their duties due to insufficient horizontal rest prior to the flights, despite meeting company-mandated rest hours. The pilot of the first aircraft, which held the right of way, was found to be operating in full compliance with all regulations and bore no responsibility for the collision.