Aviation incidents in Mallorca over the years

The first recorded accident in the history of aviation in Mallorca dates back to 2 May 1959. An Austrian plane crashed in the Serra de Alfàbia mountain range in mid-flight on its way to Munich. It had taken off from the Son Bonet aerodrome. Its five occupants were killed, two of them passengers. The balance could have been even more dramatic, as the aircraft left a group of tourists from Vienna on the ground. It was the first test flight of the company Austria-Flugdients, which was planning to establish a regular flight service to the island.

In 1993 a DC-3 aircraft crashed 300 metres from the passenger terminal at Palma airport. Its two crew members lost their lives. The investigation pointed to a malfunction in the propeller freighter as the cause of the accident.

In 2002, two pilots of a Fairchild Metro III turboprop from Madrid lost their lives after their aircraft hit the runway at Son Sant Joan airport.

To all these victims must be added at least twenty more who have lost their lives in different accidents involving private flights in Mallorca. Most of them crashed shortly after taking off from the Son Bonet aerodrome. The most serious in recent memory is the collision of a microlight and a helicopter in mid-flight that resulted in seven fatalities in 2019. At least two of the seven victims of the crash survived the impact, but were engulfed in flames from the explosion and fire that broke out on the Inca plot of land where they fell.