SATENA – Colombia′s "Pioneer" airline
Original article written by Bob Hickox (1980)
If Colombia has any claim to fame, then it certainly lies in the fact that it operates a larger number of vintage airlines than almost any other country in the world. Colombia′s unique geography renders surface transport very difficult so that it is natural that air transport has assumed great importance. Many of the airfields, especially in the east of the country, are unsuitable for any but the most rugged of airplanes and the aircraft that fills that bill better than any other is the trusty Douglas DC-3. SATENA ‘Servicio Aereo a Los Territorios Nacionales’ is one airline that serves these remote and isolated outpost of Colombia. They operate either within the Ilanos, the cattle- ranches plains or within the Selvas, the dense tropical forests, which merges towards the south into the vast Amazonian jungle of the South American Continent.
Not only must these ancient aircraft fly over these vast jungles, they would also need to cross the high mountain ranges of the Andes to reach the main capital Bogota. SATENA′s main base of operation is situated on a plateau, near Bogota within the eastern cordillera of the Andes. A safe height of 15,000 feet must be attained to cross these mountains in any but the most favourable conditions, and due to lack of oxygen and pressurisations, this is the highest altitude at which the SATENA pilots are allowed to fly.
SATENA was founded in 1962 to provide an air service to those parts of the country un-served by the commercial airlines. It operated a range of DHC-2 Beavers, PBY Catalina′s and DC-3s from the Air Force. Its service was not open to the general public, only for personnel of the government and local communities. In 1968 it became a public airline. In 1972 four new English manufactured HS-748 turbine a/c joined the fleet. During the 1970s at least 13 Douglas DC-3s and three DC-4s were operated by Satena. During the early 1980s two brand new Dutch Fokker F-28-MK3000s joined the fleet in order to replace the DC-4s.
The DC-4s were used on the longer routes while the HS-748s performed the useful job over the Andes, where their better engine performance meant that they could safely operate in bad weather. Quite often the HS-748s take took over from the DC-3s at Villavicencio, the gateway to the Llanos, and flew the final stage over the mountains to Bogota.
Satena is officially the transport wing of the Fuerza Aera Colombiana (FAC) and all its flight crew are Air Force personnel. In all order, it operates like a normal commercial airline, except that crash investigations reports are kept secret. Its pilots have a difficult job when it is considered that they must fly ancient equipment in often difficult environments, into dirt strips and or airfields with limited landing instruments. Because the unique nature and task that SATENA has to undertake, some of their operational procedures differs somewhat from the airlines.
I took a DC-4 flight from Bogota to Leticia on the Amazon River and was surprised to see cargo, in the form of a large water tank, loaded behind the passengers. It did not appear to be securely tied down and my first thought was that in a forced landing this tank would be thrown forward and crush everyone in front of it. However it would seem that in order to run profitably and accommodate the needs of customers, a mixture of cargo and passengers was necessary. The interior of the DC-4 was very Spartan with no sound proofing. The first leg of the flight was to Villavicencio and the second leg to Leticia. Cotton wool was distributed for use as ear plugs as one faced two hours of throbbing engine noise. 45 minutes out of Villavicencio, one of the engines started running rough and had to be shut down.
Our course was reversed and we flew back to Villavicencio. My first though was of that large tank in the rear of the plane, but a forced landing was not necessary and we safely reached Villavicencio airport. Here efforts were made to repair the engine, but without repair facilities this was not achievable. The cargo was off-loaded and the empty a/c took off on three engines and tried to cross the mountains to Bogota. The unfortunate DC-4 continued to circle for an hour, straining for height, we passengers meanwhile transferred to an HS-748 for a flight back to Bogota. Before we took off the DC-4 landed back again, obviously unable to gain height, the DC-4 crews were also transferred to our a/c, which was now somewhat full. The journey back to Bogota was uneventful except that we flew very close to the high mountain which was part of the climb procedure.
At 5 pm. We were back in Bogota, from which we started at 5 am. No one was very pleased. Leticia remained tantalisingly remote and the next available SATENA flights were only in the two weeks time.
My next flight with SATENA was in a DC-3 from Bogota to San Jose Del Guaviare in the Llanos. This flight was 1,5 hours late in starting as to much fuel had been supplied to the a/c, so that it was to heavy and a complicated transfer operation with another DC-3 had to take place before the a/c was ready to fly. We flew over the mountains to Villavicencio, after stopping there a few minutes to pick-up passengers we flew for an hour southwards over the Ilanos to San Jose. The airfield here was just a dirt strip and the a/c was surrounded by local people when it landed. Baggage transport was by mule and carts and there were no other airport facilities. The heat was intense as we were located about 2 degrees North of the equator. I made sure that I did not get left behind, as San Jose is nothing more than a collection of huts and I did not look forward to an enforced stay. Back in the a/c I had to sit behind the pilots as the plane was full and after some problems with the passengers, one of whom was carrying a large ceramic pot and insisted putting it on a seat, thereby depriving someone a seat, we taxied along the strip to take-off.
Sitting up front, I could see how the short and narrow airstrip was filled with pot holes. As we ran-up the engines, I felt a trifle anxious, bearing in mind the heavily loaded a/c. after checking that the engines sounded in order, the pilot made a holy cross, before opening the throttles. However we gathered speed quickly and with a turn on the trim wheel, the plane rose into the air and we slowly gained height. While we flew over the immense and empty Llanos, the pilot explained that this aircraft had been confiscated from marijuana smugglers and now used by the Colombian Air Force. This particular a/c featured an autopilot, fully retractable undercarriage doors and more powerful engines, than the standard DC-3 model.
Instead of flying direct to Bogota, we landed at Villavicencio because of bad weather over the mountains. The passengers transferred to the ever useful trusty HS-748, while the DC-3 crew waited for a break in the weather. After an hour we hastily boarded the a/c again and made a swift departure. It took about 20 minutes to labour up to 15.000 feet, but the crossing of the Andes was uneventful. As we landed back at Bogota airport we taxied past a row of DC-4s, C-46s and DC-3s of the Colombian airlines. I considered that the pilots had fully earned their keep flying under such difficult conditions and could teach a thing of two to their cosseted colleagues flying the jets.
With thanks to pictures supplied by Peter de Groot, Chris Mak, Blake W. Smith, Richard Vandervord and Jaime Escobar Corradine collection!
Postscript: as to illustrate the hazardous nature of flying in Colombia, I sadly have to report that FAC-1131 the DC-3 in which I flew to San Jose crashed 8 days after my trip flying the same route. The report in the Colombian newspaper – El Tiempo stated that the crash occurred 80 km north- East of Bogota in bad weather when the a/c hit a mountain side. Miraculously none of the 23 passengers were killed, although many were injured. The a/c crashed into a dense jungle area which cushioned the impact somewhat. The pilots also managed to shut-off the fuel flow to the engines, which prevented the outbreak of fire. The crash impact fractured the fuselage and one of the wings broke off and ended up 10 meters from the a/c. Due to the fuselage cracking open many if not all the crew and passengers could get out of the fuselage.
