Transbrasil Flight 303  Transbrasil Flight 303 was a flight from Congonhas-São Paulo Airport in São Paulo, Brazil, to Hercílio Luz International Airport in Florianópolis, Brazil, on April 12, 1980. It crashed on approach to Hercílio Luz International Airport. Only three of the 58 people on board survived. The aircraft involved was a Boeing 727-27C, registration PT-TYS. It had first flown on August 14, 1966. It was delivered to Braniff Airways, which leased it to Transbrasil in 1975, and sold it to Transbrasil in 1976. Beginning on the morning of April 12, the flight was scheduled to fly from Belém to Porto Alegre, with stops in Fortaleza, Brasília, Vitória, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Curitiba and Florianópolis. After taking off from Belém and performing most of its stopovers, Flight 303 took off from Congonhas Airport in the early evening bound for Florianopolis, the last stopover before the final destination of the flight, Porto Alegre. The aircraft was on a night instrument approach to Hercílio Luz International Airport in a severe thunderstorm. After reaching Florianópolis' non-directional beacon (NDB), located near the Hercílio Luz bridge, the Boeing 727 descended from 3,000 to 2,000 feet and began its landing approach. Around 20:38, the aircraft went off course, struck the north side of the hill Morro da Virgínia, and exploded. The crash site was in the town of Ratones, about 24 km north of Florianópolis airport. The heavy impact of the aircraft with the existing trees in the area caused the fuselage to be completely destroyed, throwing some of the passengers out, including a few survivors. The crash site was difficult to reach. The rescue teams only reached the site at around 10pm, an hour and a half after the crash. As one team rescued four survivors, another opened a clearing in the woods to allow a helicopter to land. During the night, the four survivors were removed by helicopter to hospitals in Florianópolis while the bodies of the passengers and dead crew were gathered to be transported to the Instituto Médico Legal. On the morning of April 13, authorities had to block hundreds of people attempting to invade the crash site.