Independent Air Flight 1851 N7231T, the aircraft involved in the accident, seen in 1985 with a previous livery Accident date: 8 February 1989 Summary: Controlled flight into terrain during descent Site Pico Alto, Santa Maria Island, Azores, Portugal 36.981475°N 25.091008°W Aircraft type Boeing 707-331B IATA flight No. ID1851 / YU1851 ICAO flight No. IDN1851 Call sign INDEPENDENT AIR 1851 Registration N7231T[1] Flight origin Orio al Serio Airport, Bergamo, Italy Stopover Santa Maria Airport, Santa Maria, Azores, Portugal Destination Punta Cana International Airport, Dominican Republic Occupants 144 Passengers 137 Crew 7 Fatalities 144 Survivors 0 On 8 February 1989, Independent Air Flight 1851, a Boeing 707 on an American charter flight from Bergamo, Italy, to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, struck Pico Alto while on approach to Santa Maria Airport in the Azores for a scheduled stopover. The aircraft was destroyed, with the loss of all 144 people on board, resulting in the deadliest plane crash in Portugal's history. All of the passengers on board were Italian and all of the crew were Americans. The crash is also known as "The disaster of the Azores" (Italian: Il disastro delle Azzorre).
