What happened
On 5 September, an international flight traveling from Prague, Czechoslovakia, to Havana, Cuba, via Shannon and Gander, experienced a fatal accident during the departure phase. The aircraft had arrived at Gander at 0326 hours following a stop in Shannon, Ireland. During the ground stay, the original crew disembarked and was replaced by a new crew that had been stationed in Gander since 3 September. While the aircraft underwent refueling and servicing under the oversight of the previous flight's engineer, a flight plan for the final leg to Cuba was filed.
At approximately 0504 hours, the aircraft began taxiing toward the threshold of runway 14. The takeoff clearance was granted at 0508 hours. During the initial climb, although the ground roll appeared standard and the flaps and undercarriage were retracted, the aircraft exhibited an abnormally shallow climb angle. At 0509 hours, the crew notified the tower that they were airborne. As the radio operator attempted to switch to the assigned Air Traffic Control frequency, the plane impacted the terrain roughly 4,000 feet past the runway end at 0510 hours GMT. The impact left debris spread across a distance of 1,500 meters.
Findings
The accident resulted in 37 fatalities, which included 4 crew members, and 32 injuries. Investigators were unable to identify a specific reason for the crash.