Avianca Flight 203
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Avianca Airlines Flight 203 was a Boeing 727 that was destroyed by a bomb over Colombia on November 27, 1989.
The aircraft took off from Bogotá, the Colombian capital, en route to Cali. It was in the air five minutes when an explosive charge detonated on board, igniting fuel vapors in an empty fuel tank: The blast ripped the airliner apart. All 107 people on the aircraft were killed, as well as 3 people on the ground when derbis rained down.
The bombing of Flight 203 was the worst single criminal attack in the many decades of Colombian violence. The Medellin drug cartel claimed responsibility for planting the bomb, saying it was targeting Cesar Gaviria Trujillo, the leading candidate in the presidential elections, although he was not on the plane. Dandeny Munoz-Mosquera, the chief assassin for the Medellin Cartel, was convicted in US District Court for the bombing and he was sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences.