Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano

History

The beginnings

Bolivian national airline

Financial difficulties and demise

Destinations

During the 1930s

During the 1960s

During the 1970s

During the 1980s

Prior to closure

Fleet

Accidents and incidents

• On 21 August 1944, an LAB Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar was destroyed in a fire at La Paz Airport.
• On 29 May 1947, an LAB Douglas C-47 Skytrain crashed near Trinidad.
• On 10 August 1949, an LAB Curtiss-Wright C-46 Commando crashed near Rurrenabaque. In September of the same year, a Lodestar was damaged beyond repair in a shooting during the Bolivian National Revolution.
• In 1950, two LAB C-46s crashed: The one registered CB-51 near Cochabamba on 24 April, its sister aircraft CB-38 on 2 October near La Laguna Lake.
• On 1 January 1951, an LAB C-47 was damaged beyond repair in a crash-landing at La Paz Airport.
• On 3 November 1953, a Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano Douglas DC-3 crashed into a mountain near Potosí, killing the 25 passengers and 3 crew members on board. The aircraft had been on a scheduled domestic flight from Camiri to Sucre.
• On 5 September 1955, two LAB aircraft collided mid-air over Cochabamba: A DC-3 on a scheduled passenger flight, and a Boeing B-17G on a cargo flight. The Boeing crashed, killing all three crew members. The DC-3 managed to perform an emergency landing.
• On 25 August 1956, a cargo-configured Lloyd Aéreo DC-3 crash-landed at La Paz Airport, killing two out of the three people on board.
• On 26 September 1956, the first hijacking of a commercial flight with political purposes was of the Lloyd Aereo Boliviano on 26 September 1956. The airplane, carried 47 prisoners. They were being transported from Santa Cruz, Bolivia to the town of El Alto, in La Paz. There, a political group was waiting to take them to a concentration camp located in Carahuara de Carangas, Oruro. The 47 prisoners gained control of the aircraft in mid-flight and rerouted the airplane to Tartagal, Argentina. Two of the 47 prisoners took control of the aircraft controls and received instructions to again reroute to Salta, Argentina as the airfield in Tartagal was not big enough for the DC-4. They did and moments later arrived safely to the city of Salta. They told the government of the injustice they were submitted to, and received political asylum.
• On 18 March 1957, another DC-3, which had been on a passenger flight from Cochabamba to Oruro, crashed into a mountain near Sayari. All 16 passengers and 3 crew members died.
• On 31 December 1959, all 11 occupants of an LAB C-47 died when the aircraft crashed shortly after take-off from an airfield near San José de Chiquitos.
• On 5 February 1960, a Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano Douglas DC-4, that had been on a scheduled passenger flight from Cochabamba to La Paz, crashed shortly after take-off into , a mountain lake, following an engine fire. All 55 passengers and 4 crew members lost their lives.
• On 21 August 1962, an LAB C-47 crashed near Cochabamba Airport during a post-maintenance test flight, killing four out of the five people on board.
• On 15 March 1963 at approximately 13:55 local time, Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano Flight 915 from Arica, Chile to La Paz, that was operated by a Douglas DC-6 on this day, crashed into Chachakumani mountain, killing all 36 passengers and three crew members. At the time of the accident, there were poor visibility conditions due to bad weather.
• On 4 February 1964, an LAB C-47 aircraft crashed shortly after departing Yacuiba Airport, killing two out of the 29 people on board.
• On 3 August 1966, an LAB C-46 that had been on a cargo flight from Riberalta to Cochabamba crashed into a mountain range of the Andes, killing all three people on board. The accident likely occurred because of a navigational error of the pilot, who had chosen a wrong flight path and subsequently had flown at the wrong altitude.
• On 19 April 1968, a Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano DC-3 crashed shortly after take-off from an airstrip at Trinidad. Even though the aircraft was damaged beyond repair, there were no fatalities.
• On 26 September 1969 at around 15:10 local time, an LAB DC-6 carrying 69 passengers and 5 crew members on a scheduled flight from Santa Cruz de la Sierra to La Paz crashed into Mount Choquetanga 176 kilometres away from the destination airport. There were no survivors when the wreckage was found after three days. Seventeen Bolivian football players had been amongst the passengers.
• On 16 December 1971, an LAB passenger flight from Sucre to La Paz was hijacked and demanded to be diverted to Chile. The aircraft landed at Cochabamba Airport instead, police forces stormed the plane and arrested the perpetrator. In the ensuing shooting, one crew member and one passenger were killed.
• On 13 October 1976 at 13:32 local time, a Jet Power Boeing 707 freighter aircraft, that had been chartered by LAB to operate a cargo flight from Santa Cruz de la Sierra to Miami, crashed directly after take-off from El Trompillo Airport into a housing area and a crowded football pitch, killing the three crew members as well as 88 people on the ground, making it the deadliest air disaster in Bolivia to date. The accident had likely occurred because the pilots had not selected the correct amount of thrust, so that the aircraft did not gain sufficient height.
• On 23 January 1980, a LAB Fairchild F-27J ran off a taxiway whilst being on ground at Santa Ana del Yacuma Airport and went into a ditch, during which the fuel tank was ruptured by debris from the propeller. In the ensuing fire, the aircraft was destroyed, but all 15 passengers and the three crew members could be saved.
• On 2 June 1980, a Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano F-27J crashed into a hill whilst approaching Yacuiba Airport, killing the 10 passengers and three crew members on board.
• On 16 March 1984, another F-27M crashed, this time in a jungle somewhere between Trinidad and San Borja, claiming the lives of the 20 passengers and three crew.
• On 23 January 1985, a passenger detonated a bomb in a lavatory on board an LAB flight from La Paz to Santa Cruz de la Sierra, killing him. The aircraft involved, a Boeing 727-200 registered CP-1276, was substantially damaged but could safely be landed. There were no fatalities among the other 119 passengers and seven crew members.
• On 31 August 1991, an LAB Boeing 707 was destroyed in a hangar fire at Dothan Regional Airport in the United States.
• On 22 December 1994, a Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano Fokker F27 Friendship overran the runway at Guayaramerín Airport following a rejected takeoff and crashed into trees. All 36 passengers and four crew members survived the accident. The planned destination of the scheduled domestic flight had been San Joaquín.
• On 9 January 2001 at 17:20 local time, the left main landing gear of an LAB Boeing 727-200 collapsed while taxiing at Buenos Aires Ezeiza Airport prior to a scheduled flight to Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Investigator found that the accident, by which none of the 138 passengers and 8 crew members were injured but left the aircraft damaged beyond repair, happened because of corrosion damage.
• On 7 August 2004, an LAB Boeing 767-300ER experienced a hard landing at Viru Viru International Airport following a scheduled flight from Miami, and was substantially damaged.
• On 1 February 2008 at 10:35 local time, the pilots of an LAB Boeing 727-200 had to execute a forced landing in a jungle clearing near Trinidad due to fuel exhaustion. The aircraft carrying 151 passengers and 8 crew had been on a scheduled flight from La Paz to Cobija, when it had to divert to Trinidad due to bad weather conditions, ultimately failing make the distance with the remaining fuel. Luckily, there were no fatalities; the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.