Eastern Air Lines Flight 980

Eastern Air Lines Flight 980

N819EA, the aircraft involved in the accident, in October 1982
Accident
Date	1 January 1985
Summary	Controlled flight into terrain for unknown reasons
Site	Mount Illimani, Bolivia 16°38′10″S 67°47′21″W / 16.63611°S 67.78917°W / -16.63611; -67.78917
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Boeing 727-225 Advanced[a]
Operator	Eastern Air Lines
IATA flight No.	EA980
ICAO flight No.	EAL980
Call sign	EASTERN 980
Registration	N819EA
Flight origin	President Stroessner International Airport, Asunción, Paraguay
1st stopover	El Alto International Airport, La Paz, Bolivia
Last stopover	Simón Bolívar International Airport, Guayaquil, Ecuador
Destination	Miami International Airport, Florida, United States
Occupants	29
Passengers	19
Crew	10
Fatalities	29
Survivors	0

Eastern Air Lines Flight 980 was a scheduled international flight from Asunción, Paraguay, to Miami, Florida, United States. On January 1, 1985, while descending towards La Paz, Bolivia, for a scheduled stopover, the Boeing 727 jetliner struck Mount Illimani at an altitude of 19,600 feet (6,000 m), killing all 29 people on board.

The wreckage was scattered over a large area of a glacier covered with snow. Over the decades, several search expeditions were only able to recover a small amount of debris, and searches for the flight recorders were unsuccessful. The accident remains the highest-altitude controlled flight into terrain in commercial aviation history.
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