Incident Overview
Date: Monday 8 November 1943
Aircraft Type: Douglas C-53D Skytrooper (DC-3)
Owner/operator: United States Army Air Force – USAAF
Location: within Albania –
ÿ Albania
Phase of Flight: En route
Status: Destroyed, written off
Casualties: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 30
Component Affected: C-53 transport planeC-53 transport plane
Category: Accident
A C-53 transport plane crashed in Albania due to a violent storm and pursuit by German Messerschmitts. The plane carried 30 people, including a pilot, co-pilot, radio operator, and crew chief, along with 13 nurses and 13 medics. After a sixty-day journey through Nazi-occupied Albania aided by the Albanian population, the group successfully crossed the Allied lines.A C-53 transport plane crashed in Albania due to a violent storm and pursuit by German Messerschmitts. The plane carried 30 people, including a pilot, co-pilot, radio operator, and crew chief, along with 13 nurses and 13 medics. After a sixty-day journey through Nazi-occupied Albania aided by the Albanian population, the group successfully crossed the Allied lines.
Description
A violent storm and pursuit by German Messerschmitts led to a crash landing of the C-53 transport plane in a remote part of Albania. There were 30 people on the plane: a pilot, a co-pilot, a radio operator, and a crew chief, plus 13 nurses and 13 medics. In a long ordeal the whole group managed to travel, with help of the Albanian population, in sixty days through Nazi occupied Albania to finally cross the Allied lines. The long journey was depicted in several books and a movie.
Source of Information
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130523-world-war-ii-veteran-nazi-crash-survive-albania-secret-rescue/, http://muse.jhu.edu/books/9780813127422http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130523-world-war-ii-veteran-nazi-crash-survive-albania-secret-rescue/, http://muse.jhu.edu/books/9780813127422Primary Cause
A violent storm and pursuit by German Messerschmitts.A violent storm and pursuit by German Messerschmitts.Share on:
