What happened
On a scheduled flight designated EH011, a four-engine airplane departed from Quito-Mariscal Sucre Airport at 07:08 local time, bound for Cuenca. During the cruise phase of the flight, while operating at an altitude of 18,000 feet within cloud cover, the aircraft impacted a mountain slope and subsequently vanished from radar monitoring.
Following the disappearance, search and rescue operations were launched to locate the missing vessel and its passengers. These efforts were terminated several days later when no evidence of the plane or its 57 occupants could be identified. It was not until approximately five years after the incident that debris from the crash was discovered in a mountainous region within the Shell-Mera area, located in the province of Pastaza.
Findings
Investigations into the accident concluded that the primary factor was controlled flight into terrain. At the time of the impact, the aircraft had drifted approximately 25 nautical miles away from its intended flight path, though the specific reason for this navigational deviation remains undetermined.