On 6 February 1996 , Birgenair Flight 301 was bound for Frankfurt , Germany but crashed shortly after take-off from Puerto Plata Airport in the Dominican Republic into Atlantic Ocean 26 kilometres off-shore . All 176 passengers and 13 crew members , among them 154 Germans and 9 Polish people died , presumably instantantly . It was found that one of the air speed indicators of the Boeing 757-225 was not working properly due to a mud dauber wasp having made a nest in a pitot tube , confusing the pilots about whether the plane 's speed was too fast or too slow . The black box , data recorder pointed to error by the captain , because instead of measuring the air speed through one of the working air speed indicators he continued to use the faulty indicator and did not return to the airport . The aircraft was leased due to a problem on the scheduled aircraft for the flight
Birgenair Flight 301
Birgenair Flight 301
Birgenair