Lóide Aéreo Nacional Flight 652

Due to the rainy and overcast weather, with impaired visibility, several unsuccessful landing attempts were made at the then Campina Grande Airport. On the last approach, the aircraft was flying below the approach ceiling and crashed into the ground, on a field on the left bank of the Trans-Amazonian Highway, in Bodocongó.^[4] Among the dead were the pilot and the telegraph operator of the plane, a doctor, an architect and a manager of Banco do Brasil. One of the survivors of the accident was the then law student Renato Aragão.^[5]

The victims were rescued by the Fire Department and taken to Pedro I Hospital, regional emergency rooms and Ipase, in serious condition. Due to the difficult access to the location, the firefighters' rescue work was extremely challenging. Even with the rescue operation underway, local residents took advantage of the resulting confusion to loot and steal belongings from the injured and deceased in the accident.^[5][6]

Currently, at the exact site of the accident, there is a shrine and a cross where visitors pray and fulfill vows. The place has been named "airplane chapel".

According to the final report, the pilots descended without clearance, and at a critical point where they should be at an altitude of 647 meters (2,120 feet), they were at 520 meters (1,700 feet). The pilot tried to enter the traffic visual to gain sight of the runway but failed. They pulled the plane up to 750 meters (2,460 feet). On reaching this altitude, they made a turn above the station, intercepting the outbound track. The captain maintained altitude up to the end of the base turn, when, starting the return, on heading 200 degrees, he began to descend, turning on the aircraft lights. The co-pilot was still unable to obtain visual reference. The plane then crashed with a shout: "hitting".

The inbound heading of 200 degrees observed by the co-pilot and checked by the Investigating Commission showed that the procedure carried out by the pilot was not in accordance with that indicated in the approach chart approved by the Directorate of Air Routes. It was also found that at the time vertical visual contact with the runway was established, the aircraft was at most 40 metres (130 feet) from the ground, despite the fact that the meteorological information supplied by the Lóide station at PPKG was ceiling 130 metres with visibility 6 kilometres.

The probable cause was stated as "pilot error - improper procedure during an authorized instrument flight. A contributing cause was an error on other personnel's end - the meteorological forecast was incorrect."