Talk:UTA Flight 141

Untitled

Are you sure this was a Union des Transports Aériens plane? As far as I know, the French UTA has been out of business for a very long time, the comfusion could be that both United Transit Airlines and Union share the same three initials, UTA.

Antonio Sex Fuel Martin

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The full name of the airline is Union des Transports Aériens de Guinée, or UTAGE. Yes, its a different airline, but the name is also in French. WhisperToMe 03:57, 9 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Bight of Benin

Did the plane crash into the Bight (i.e. the water) or onto the beach. The article does not make that clear. Griffinofwales (talk) 19:28, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

I recently came back to this article for research on a completely unrelated topic, and took the time to read the full (translated) report on the incident. It appears that the main body of the plane ended up in the ocean, but that there was debris on the beach. Griffinofwales (talk) ^{Come and join the}_{Simple English Wikipedia} 21:31, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Stuff to archive

• http://www.bea.aero/docspa/2003/3x-o031225/htm/3x-o031225.html
• http://www.bea.aero/docspa/2003/3x-o031225/htm/table.htm
• http://www.bea.aero/docspa/2003/3x-o031225a/htm/3x-o031225a.html
• http://www.bea.aero/docspa/2003/3x-o031225a/pdf/3x-o031225a.pdf

Some archives

• http://www.webcitation.org/5zlrTXGRT (English front page)
• http://www.webcitation.org/5zlrX4BtN (French front page)

WhisperToMe (talk) 02:45, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

Name of the Airline

The final report and news articles from the time both use 'Union des Transports Africains' and the acronym 'UTA'. This also matches what was written on the airline's planes. Where does the name 'Union des Transports Aériens de Guinée', or the acronym 'UTAGE', come from then? The closest I could find were two articles from FlightGlobal that used 'Union des Transports Africains de Guinée' and the acronym 'UTAG'. Looking closer, I found that 'Union des Transports Africains de Guinée' is used twice in the final report (pages 44 and 68) and appears to be the airline's full legal name, though the report still uses the acronym 'UTA' throughout. Should this article, and the one on the airline itself, be moved? ThatFlyingSquid (talk) 17:01, 13 December 2020 (UTC)

@ThatFlyingSquid: I would prefer UTAG but I would have one name redirect to the other. Unfortunately I don't remember where I got "UTAGE" from, so I wouldn't use that 23:51, 14 December 2020 (UTC)

Requested move 15 December 2020

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: Pages moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) Jerm (talk) 20:12, 31 December 2020 (UTC)

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• UTAGE Flight 141 → UTA Flight 141
• Union des Transports Aériens de Guinée → Union des Transports Africains de Guinée

– As shown in the 'Name of the Airline' section, there is no evidence that the airline was named 'Union des Transports Aériens de Guinée' and referred to as 'UTAGE'. Most sources use 'Union des Transports Africains (de Guinée)' and 'UTA'. In regards to the accident article, some may be concerned about confusion as there was a French airline with the same name. However, keep in mind there are already cases of different airlines with the same name being referred to as the same in accident articles (e.g. National Airlines Flight 27 and National Airlines Flight 102). ThatFlyingSquid (talk) 15:00, 15 December 2020 (UTC) —Relisting. BegbertBiggs (talk) 23:18, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

• Support per nom; the name seems to be "Union des Transports Africains" and I have no idea where "Aériens" comes from. Similarly, every source on the crash uses "UTA" as the abbreviation for the airline. power~enwiki (π, ν) 06:31, 31 December 2020 (UTC)

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The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion:

• UTA Boeing 727-223 3X-GDO.jpg

You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 02:08, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

2026 Requested move (again)

There was a (successful) requested move in late 2020 because there was no justification for using UTAGE, and so the article became UTA Flight 141. It was recognised at the time that plain UTA was potentially ambiguous, because in all probability this new airline had set itself up deliberately to be confused with the original and well-respected French airline UTA. (Ok, so shoot me!)

Background

The original Union de Transports Aériens aka UTA, existed from 1963 to 1992, as the second largest French airline, mostly flying between France and French-speaking Central/West Africa. At this time many smaller African nations could not support their own airline, and UTA was better known to them even than Air France. But in 1990 UTA was absorbed into the Air France group, and thus disappeared from view.

Fast forward to 2001 and Union des Transports Africains de Guinée aka UTAGE was created, flying in the same part of the world that the original UTA inhabited. But for some strange reason (pfft!) the new airline adopted the shorter, and potentially confusing acronym UTA. They lasted for three years until Flight 141 crashed due to chronic mismanagement. In context there is nothing wrong with abbreviating the name to UTA, on a local basis, providing that the full name has been spelled out first. In a list of air crashes here on Wikipedia, that doesn't happen.

Trident G-ARPI, marked only as "BEA", crashed 18 June 1972

It is the same for AA, which can mean American Airlines, or possibly Alcoholics Anonymous, and sometimes a British motoring organisation. When talking about 9/11, many commentators refer to AA Flight 77 crashing into The Pentagon, but the article on Wikipedia is headed American Airlines Flight 77, written out in full, as are the other 20+ AA crashes here. It is the same with British European Airways Flight 548 (not "BEA Flight 548"), and there are many more examples.

Proposal; as a one-off, for a defunct airline that existed briefly in one small corner of the world, write the airline name in full, Union des Transports Africains de Guinée Flight 141

This will avoid any possible confusion with other articles such as UTA Flight 772

WendlingCrusader (talk) 00:46, 28 March 2026 (UTC)

I should have included the following advice from the Aviation Accident Task Force, which states per WP:AVTITLE;

For commercial aircraft with a known flight number, the standard article name structure is:

<airline> Flight <flight number>

For example: Korean Air Lines Flight 007, American Airlines Flight 77

Note again that neither KAL (for Korean Air Lines), nor AA are used. WendlingCrusader (talk) 16:50, 28 March 2026 (UTC)

Image change

AA Boeing 727-223; right aircraft,
but wrong registration and wrong airline

ex-AA Boeing 727-223; in a bare scheme that closely resembles 3X-GDO

Unfortunately there are very few images on any database showing 3X-GDO, and definitely none on Wikimedia.

For years the second-best choice was the "correct" aircraft, but in a previous life with the wrong airline. If it was a lesser-known airline this might not matter, but it is AA American Airlines, and thus it is instantly recognisable for that fact. WP:AVILAYOUT-ACC cautions against such images;

...be aware that aircraft in other operators' markings may be misleading and focus on an operator not related to the accident

There is a rare image of the actual aircraft in Union des Transports Africains de Guinée livery, showing that they took the easy (and cheaper) option and modified the basic AA livery, principally by replacing the red stripe (with blue), and removing the AA logo. Using this as a guide, and after some searching, I have found a near identical ex AA Boeing 727, replicating this change whilst omitting the UTA titles and the very-similar-to-Air-France flying horse. That airline really did push their luck!

This satisfies the need to keep American Airlines out of the picture. Yes, they were the previous owners of the aircraft, but that has NOTHING to do with the crash.

WendlingCrusader (talk) 14:07, 21 April 2026 (UTC)