Accident Overview
VIASA Flight 897 was a scheduled passenger service from Rome to Caracas with intermediate stops in Madrid, Lisbon, and Santa Maria. The aircraft, a DC-8, landed at Lisbon at 00:06 UTC. After a crew change and inspection by KLM maintenance personnel, the flight was cleared for a departure on runway 23. The aircraft took off at 01:15 UTC, heading for the Capiraca (LS) NDB.
Last Communications
At 01:18:37, the crew advised that the cloud base was at 3,700 feet and switched to the Lisbon area control frequency. At 01:19:25, they reported to Lisbon Control that they were "over LS at 19 climbing through FL 60." This message ended with two quickly spoken sentences and was the last radio contact with the flight.
Descent and Impact
During the final transmission, the DC-8 entered a spiral dive to the left. The aircraft banked left to 90° within about 20 seconds and struck the water after another 15 seconds. In the last 15 seconds, the bank was over-corrected to the right. The aircraft struck the sea with a pitch angle of approximately 25° nose down while probably banking 30° to the right.
Investigation
A very thorough, time-consuming investigation involving many authorities and experts was conducted. Despite extensive efforts, it was not possible to establish a probable cause for the accident. The Netherlands, as the state of registry, commented that while there were no direct indications, it was possible that the accident was due to the pilot or pilots being misled by instrument failure, particularly of the artificial horizon, or to the pilot having been distracted, leading to a serious deviation from the normal flight path not being discovered in time.