Alas Nacionales

Alas Nacionales, S.A.
IATA
ICAO
ALW
Callsign
Alas Nacionales Dominicanas
Founded 1990's
Hubs Las Américas International Airport
Frequent-flyer program Yes
Airport lounge Yes
Fleet size 4
Destinations 8
Headquarters Santo Domingo

Alas Nacionales ("National Wings" in Spanish) was a Dominican Republic-based carrier that operated flights between Dominican Republic and Europe and United States. This airline had it hub in Las Américas International Airport of Santo Domingo, and had some operations to Europe from Puerto Plata. The airline served as a representative of Birgenair.[1][2]

Contents

Destinations

Alas Nacionales had preferences until its destinations, they were operating more flights to Europe than USA.

Fleet

Incidents and accidents

On February 6, 1996 Birgenair Flight 301 (Operated by Alas Nacionales[1]) was bound for Frankfurt, Germany but crashed shortly after take-off from Puerto Plata Airport in the Dominican Republic into Atlantic Ocean 26 kilometres off-shore. All 176 passengers and 13 crew members, among them 154 Germans and 10 Polish people, were killed. It was found that one of the air speed indicators of the Boeing 757-225 was not working properly, confusing the pilots about whether the plane's speed was too fast or too slow.

Massive negative publicity about Birgenair and other discount flight organizers in Germany following the disaster caused a sharp decline in reservations, and finally the company went into bankruptcy and closed later that same year, 1996 (Those two airlines).[3]

References

Dominican Republic portal
Companies portal
Aviation portal
  1. ^ a b Pope, Hugh and Phil Davison. "Crash plane may not have been serviced." The Independent. Saturday 10 February 1996. Retrieved on 26 June 2010.
  2. ^ Karacs, Imre and Phil Davison. "Bonn grounds 757 as crash mystery grows." The Independent. Friday 9 February 1996. Retrieved on 26 June 2010.
  3. ^ Unknown (February 6, 2008). "AWL 301 to FRA (Crashed)". Periodico El Caribe. Archived from the original on 2008-01-13. http://web.archive.org/web/20080113212158/http://www.elcaribecdn.com.do/articulo_caribe.aspx?id=151125&guid=A043FA54894D4C72BBAC2211C23256BF&Seccion=3. Retrieved 2008-02-06.