Video: 'Fatal Alarms - The Mystery of Birgenair Flight 301 | Mayday: Air Disaster'

(Tuesday, February 6, 1996, 11:47 p.m. Atlantic Standard Time) — A Turkish-owned Boeing 757–225 jetliner crashed into the Atlantic Ocean tonight shortly after takeoff from Puerto Plata Airport in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, killing 189 people, mostly German tourists.

The cause was pilot error after receiving incorrect airspeed information from one of the pitot tubes, which investigators believe was blocked by a wasp nest built inside it. The aircraft had been sitting unused for 20 days, and without pitot tube covers in place for the two days preceding the crash.