Yesterday marked the 26th anniversary of the tragic plane crash on the island of Santo Antão.
São Pedro, Saturday August 7, 1999, the Dornier Do 223, registration D4-CBC of the Coast Guard serving TACV flight 5002 replacing the De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter commonly known as (Djô Canela) due to technical problems, takes off from São Vicente at 11:42 minutes.
It was to land at Agostinho Neto Aerodrome in Ponta do Sol Santo Antão more or less 13 minutes later, but on approach the crew, consisting of Commander Borges and Co-Pilot Nelito, informed the authorities that the poor visibility of the runway and heavy fog would make it impossible to land and decided to return to São Vicente.
It would have been a normal procedure, what nobody expected was that instead of following the usual and indicated route (over the ocean) the crew decided to shorten the route by doing what Kriola aeronautics does not allow, flying over the island at low altitude, curving to the right and trying to reach altitude still inside the Paul Valley.
The aircraft had just crashed at the end of this valley on the border with Ribeira da Torre, in the vicinity of Cova, called Pedra Rachada, at an altitude of over 1300 meters, leaving the wreckage scattered around the town of Rabu Curto in the municipality of Ribeira Grande.
A strong rescue mission was set up at the time, made up of all the security and health elements of the islands of Santo Antão and São Vicente, in order to quickly rescue possible survivors, something that hours later the rescue teams reported was impossible.
Entire families lost several members in this accident, and at the time the then Cape Verdean government decreed 3 days of national mourning in memory of the victims.
In the final report, HUMAN ERROR was the cause behind this event, which claimed the lives of 18 people (2 crew members, 16 passengers including 2 French nationals).
The ASA decided to close the airfield in 2003, as TACV - Cabo Verde Airlines had decided to sell the De Havillland Canada DH-6 Twin Otter aircraft, baptized by the people as "Djô Canela". The Twin Otter was the only aircraft operating at the Santo Antão aerodrome and, as there were no planes to operate there (since the runway was 598mx30m), the solution was to close the infrastructure.
Obs: with Felipe Santos
Deputy of the Nation
