TAAG Flight 462

TAAG Flight 462 was a flightoin TAAG Angola Airlines which crashed just after a Boeing 737-200 took off from Lubango Airport in Lubango, Angola, on a regular domestic service as Flight DT 462 to Quatro de Fevereiro Airport in Luanda on November 8, 1983. The aircraft had 126 passengers and four crew on board. They were all killed.

Aircraft
The aircraft involved was a one-year-old Boeing 737-2M2 (registration D2-TBN, factory no. 22775, and serial no. 869) that had its maiden flight on April 29, 1982, and was delivered to TAAG Angola Airlines on May 6 the same year. The aircraft was powered by two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-17 turbofan engines.

Crash
The Boeing 737 was operating as Flight DT 462. The aircraft was at 200 ft and climbing when it began to descend and turn left. The left wingtip hit the ground, and the aircraft broke apart and burst into flames. The wreckage came to rest 800 m from the end of the runway at Lubango Airport. The crash killed all 130 people on board.

Probable cause
UNITA guerillas claimed to have shot down the aircraft, which they believed to be carrying only military personnel, with a surface-to-air missile to protest Angola's government. Post-crash investigation of the aircraft's wreckage by the Angolan authorities reported no conclusive evidence of missile damage, and the cause of the crash is officially considered to be a mechanical failure.