Ladeco board. The aircraft was operating a domestic scheduled passenger flight from Los Cerrillos Airport, Santiago. Ladeco Ladeco was a Chilean airline; Ladeco is the acronym of "Línea Aérea Del Cobre" or the "Airline of Copper," in reference to the principal Chilean export. Ladeco began operations in 1958 flying mostly internal routes between Chile's major cities and some international routes, and continued to run services until 1994 when LanChile (currently called Latam Chile) bought over 99% of the shares and merged Ladeco into its fleet. At the time of takeover, Ladeco was equipped mainly with Boeing 737 aircraft as well as
Sun Country Airlines Sun Country also provided ad-hoc charter lift. In 1989 Sun Country became a member of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) and flew many charters to support the Desert Storm operation from 1990 to 1991. After earning profits of $9.7 million for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1991, the airline acquired additional Boeing 727 and DC-10 aircraft. In the mid 1990s, Mark Travel Group, led by Bill LaMacchia, Jr., acquired Sun Country and began changing the focus of the airline. As the DC-10 aircraft aged and required expensive maintenance, the airline gradually reduced the fleet, ultimately retiring the final