Real Transportes Aéreos Flight 435
Real Transportes Aéreas Flight 435 was a Convair 340 flying from Belo Horizonte to Rio de Janeiro on June 24, 1960. The 54 people on board (49 passengers and 5 crew) were on approach to Santos Dumont Airport in Rio during heavy rain when contact was lost near Ilha dos Ferros in Guanabara Bay.
The aircraft, registered PP-YRB and piloted by Captain João Afonso Fabrício Belloc, disappeared from radar after reporting the landing approach at about 18:43. A search found part of the wreckage in the bay around 1:15 a.m. on June 25. Few bodies could be identified because the crash was violent, suggesting an explosion, though no fire or explosion traces were found on the wreckage. The plane did not carry flight recorders or black boxes, which hindered the investigation. Some debris was found near Ilha de Paquetá, and the exact cause of the crash was never established.
The disaster led to a decline for Real Transportes Aéreas, which was acquired by Varig the following year. It also prompted a Parliamentary Inquiry Commission to investigate Brazil’s high aviation accident rate, chaired by Congressman Miguel Antônio Bahury, whose wife died in Flight 435. Bahury himself died about three years later in a different Convair 340 crash near São Paulo.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 18:52 (CET).