1960 Munich C-131 crash

Last updated

1960 Munich C-131 crash
Convair C-131D Samaritan USAF.jpg
A C-131D similar to the accident aircraft
Accident
Date17 December 1960
SummaryTake-off failure
SiteWest of Munich-Riem Airport, Munich, West Germany
48°8′20″N11°32′59″E / 48.13889°N 11.54972°E / 48.13889; 11.54972
Total fatalities52 (including 32 on the ground)
Total injuries20 (on the ground)
Aircraft
Aircraft type Convair C-131D (CV-340)
Operator Third Air Force, United States Air Force
Registration 55-0291
Flight origin Munich-Riem Airport
Destination RAF Northolt
Passengers13
Crew7
Fatalities20
Survivors0
Ground casualties
Ground fatalities32
Ground injuries20

On 17 December 1960, a Convair C-131D Samaritan operated by the United States Air Force on a flight from Munich to RAF Northolt crashed shortly after take-off from Munich-Riem Airport, due to fuel contamination. All 20 passengers and crew on board as well as 32 people on the ground were killed. [1] [2]

Contents

Accident

St. Paul's Church, Munich Muenchen-StPaul.jpg
St. Paul's Church, Munich

On 17 December 1960, the Samaritan was due to fly from Munich-Riem airport in Germany to RAF Northolt in the United Kingdom with 13 passengers and 7 crew. [1] Shortly after takeoff, the aircraft lost power to one of its two Pratt & Whitney R-2800 radial engines. [2] Unable to maintain altitude and with bad visibility due to fog, it hit the 318-foot (97 m) steeple of St. Paul's Church next to the Oktoberfest site (then vacant) in the Ludwigsvorstadt borough. Subsequently, at 2:10 PM, it crashed into a crowded two-section Munich tramway car on Martin-Greif-Straße, close to Bayerstraße. [3]

All 13 passengers and 7 crew members on the plane died. 32 people on the ground were killed and 20 were injured. [1] A section of the wing crashed through the roof of a building at Hermann-Lingg-Straße, a block away from the main accident site, without injuring anybody there. The Free Lance-Star, a daily newspaper for Fredricksburg and its surrounding areas, reported that some passengers on the Convair were holiday-bound University of Maryland students who were dependants of military personnel stationed in England. [4]

Aircraft

The accident aircraft, Convair C-131D-CO Samaritan, (c/n 212, company designation: Model 340-79), was a twin piston engined military transport with seating for 44 passengers. Given the military serial number 55-0291, the aircraft was the first United States Air Force C-131 to be based in Europe, at RAF Northolt, where it was under command of the 7500th Air Base Group, 3rd Air Force, U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE). [5]

Investigation

A crash investigation revealed water in the fuel tank booster pump. Because water is more dense than fuel it can settle to the bottom of the tank, into the pump inlets; when it freezes it blocks inlets and deprives the engine of fuel. This deprivation of fuel caused the Munich C-131 to lose power and eventually shut down the engine. [2]

Aftermath

After the accident, the Munich Fire & Rescue Services ordered new TLF 16 powder trucks to complement their fleet of traditional water tenders. [6] [7]

Munich had initiated the expansion plans for Munich-Riem Airport in 1954. However, two plane crashes within the Munich city limit in the space of two years, and the New York air disaster that happened a day before, stopped the expansion plans. The city and state governments decided to build a new airport outside the city limit instead. Similar discussions were held in Hamburg about its Fuhlsbüttel Airport, but the airport was expanded rather than relocated elsewhere, making the airport the oldest continuously operated in Germany to this day. [8] [9]

Memorial plaque at the accident site (translation: "In memory of the 52 victims of the airplane crash on 17 December 1960") Flugzeugungluck 1960 in Munchen-Gedenkplatte.jpg
Memorial plaque at the accident site (translation: "In memory of the 52 victims of the airplane crash on 17 December 1960")

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Convair 990 Coronado</span> American four-engined jet airliner (1962–1987)

The Convair 990 Coronado was an American narrow-body four-engined jet airliner produced between 1961 and 1963 by the Convair division of American company General Dynamics. It was a stretched version of its earlier Convair 880 produced in response to a request from American Airlines: the 990 was lengthened by 10 ft (3.0 m), which increased the number of passengers from between 88 and 110 in the 880 to between 96 and 121. This was still fewer passengers than the contemporary Boeing 707 or Douglas DC-8, although the 990 was 25–35 mph (40–56 km/h) faster than either in cruise.

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1956.

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1960.

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1977.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RAF Northolt</span> Royal Air Force station in Greater London, England

Royal Air Force Northolt or more simply RAF Northolt is a Royal Air Force station in South Ruislip, 2 nautical miles from Uxbridge in the London Borough of Hillingdon, western Greater London, England, approximately 6 mi (10 km) north of Heathrow Airport. As London VIP Airport, the station handles many private civil flights in addition to Air Force flights.

Spantax S.A. was a Spanish leisure airline headquartered in Madrid that operated from 6 October 1959 to 29 March 1988. Spantax was one of the first Spanish airlines to operate tourist charter flights between European and North American cities and popular Spanish holiday destinations and was considered a major force in developing 20th-century mass tourism in Spain. Its popularity and image faded from the 1970s onward when a series of crashes and incidents revealed safety deficits, which, combined with rising fuel costs and increasing competition, resulted in the company facing severe financial difficulties that led to its demise in 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Convair C-131 Samaritan</span> 1954 airlifter series by Convair

The Convair C-131 Samaritan is an American twin-engined military transport produced from 1954 to 1956 by Convair. It is the military version of the Convair CV-240 family of airliners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Berlin Air Corridor</span> Airways linking West Berlin to West Germany

During the Cold War era (1945–1991), the West Berlin air corridors, also known as the Berlin corridors and control zone, were three regulated airways for civil and military air traffic of the Western Allies between West Berlin and West Germany passing over East Germany's territory. The corridors and control zone were physically centered on and under control of the all-Allied Berlin Air Safety Center (BASC) in West Berlin. The airspace within these corridors was used by US, UK and French-registered non-combat aircraft belonging to these countries' armed forces and airlines operated by pilots holding those countries' passports. In addition, it was also used by LOT Polish Airlines for regular scheduled services from Warsaw to London and Paris via Schönefeld Airport to the south of East Berlin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fuel starvation</span> Problem affecting internal combustion engines

In an internal combustion engine, fuel starvation is the failure of the fuel system to supply sufficient fuel to allow the engine to run properly, for example due to blockage, vapor lock, contamination by water, malfunction of the fuel pump or incorrect operation, leading to loss of power or engine stoppage. There is still fuel in the tank(s), but it is unable to get to the engine(s) in sufficient quantity. By contrast, fuel exhaustion is an occurrence in which the vehicle in question becomes completely devoid of usable fuel, with results similar to those of fuel starvation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Munich-Riem Airport</span> 1939–1992 airport in Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Munich-Riem Airport was the international airport of Munich, the capital city of Bavaria and third-largest city of Germany. It was closed down on 16 May 1992, the day before the new Munich Airport commenced operations. It was located near the old village of Riem in the borough of Trudering-Riem in the east of Munich.

Det Danske Luftfartselskab A/S or DDL, trading in English as Danish Air Lines, was Denmark's national airline from 1918 until it merged to create Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) in 1951. DDL was established on 29 October 1918, but started its first scheduled route on 7 August 1920.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1948 Northwood mid-air collision</span> Mid air collision over UK

The 1948 Northwood mid-air collision took place on 4 July at 15:03 when a Douglas DC-6 of Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) and an Avro York C.1 of the Royal Air Force (RAF) collided in mid-air over Northwood in London, UK. All thirty-nine people aboard both aircraft were killed. It was SAS's first fatal aviation accident and was at the time the deadliest civilian aviation accident in the UK. It is still the deadliest mid-air collision in British history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paninternational</span> Former German airline

Paninternational was a West German leisure airline headquartered in Munich with bases at Munich-Riem Airport and Düsseldorf Airport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Paul's Church, Munich</span> Catholic church in Munich, Germany

St. Paul's Church is a large Catholic church in the Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt quarter of Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It was built in 1892–1906, designed by the Austrian architect Georg von Hauberrisser in the Gothic Revival style, north of the Theresienwiese.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spantax Flight 275</span> 1972 aviation accident

Spantax Flight 275, registration number EC-BZR, was a Convair 990 Coronado charter flight operated by Spantax from Tenerife to Munich with 148 passengers and 7 crew. On December 3, 1972, the plane crashed while taking off from Tenerife-Norte Los Rodeos Airport in Tenerife, killing everyone aboard. Many of the passengers were West German tourists heading home.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2018 Pretoria Convair 340 crash</span> Aviation disaster in South Africa

On 10 July 2018, a Convair 340 owned by Dutch aviation museum Aviodrome crashed during a trial flight in Pretoria, South Africa. The aircraft suffered an engine fire moments after takeoff and crashed into a factory building as the crew attempted to return it to Wonderboom Airport.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Ranter, Harro. "Accident description". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Archived from the original on 13 March 2005. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 "ACCIDENT DETAILS". www.planecrashinfo.com. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
  3. Stankiewitz, Karl (17 December 2020). "Flugzeugabsturz vor 60 Jahren in München: "Gerade ist Furchtbares passiert"" [Plane crash 60 years ago in Munich: "A terrible thing has just happened"]. Abendzeitung München (in German). Archived from the original on 17 December 2020.
  4. "Munich Plane Crash Kills 50–60 Today". The Free Lance-Star. 17 December 1960. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  5. "Royal Air Force Northolt Convair Feature". landair.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Archived from the original on 11 February 2008. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
  6. "Nachkreigszeit: 1945 bis 1970" [Post-war period: 1945 to 1970]. Muenchen.de (in German). Archived from the original on 20 December 2013. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  7. "TLF-16". Oldtimerfreunde Feuerwerk Flensburg (in German). 10 June 2018.
  8. Jaentschi-Haucke, Karin. "Bezirksvereinigung Südbayern" [District Association of Southern Bavaria]. www.vwl.uni-freiburg.de (in German). Archived from the original on 14 September 2001. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
  9. "History 1910–1916 Early history". www.ham.airport.de. Retrieved 28 July 2014.

Other sources