What happened
On the scheduled route from Rome to Caracas via Madrid, Lisbon, and Santa Maria, VIASA Flight 897 arrived at Lisbon at 00:06 UTC. After undergoing a crew change and receiving inspections from KLM maintenance staff, the DC-8 was authorized for takeoff from runway 23. The aircraft departed at 01:15, navigating toward the Capiraca NDB.
At 01:18:37, the flight crew notified controllers that the cloud base was situated at 3700 ft and transitioned to the Lisbon area control frequency. Shortly after, at 01:19:25, the aircraft reported being over LS while climbing through FL 60. This transmission included two rapid-fire sentences and served as the final communication from the flight.
During this final radio contact, the aircraft entered a leftward spiral dive. The plane banked to the left at an angle of 90° in roughly 20 seconds. In the subsequent 15 seconds, the bank was over-corrected toward the right. The DC-8 ultimately impacted the water with a nose-down pitch of approximately 25°, while likely maintaining a 30° right bank. The accident resulted in all occupants being killed.
Findings
Extensive investigations involving multiple international authorities were unable to officially determine a definitive cause for the crash. However, the Netherlands, acting as the state of registry, noted that the accident might have been triggered by instrument failure, specifically regarding the artificial horizon, or by pilot distraction leading to an undetected deviation from the flight path.