Incident Overview

Date: Tuesday 12 July 1949
Aircraft Type: Lockheed L-749-79-33 Constellation
Owner/operator: KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
Registration Number: PH-TDF
Location: 5 km ENE of Bombay-Santacruz Airport (BOM) – ÿ India
Phase of Flight: Approach
Status: Destroyed, written off
Casualties: Fatalities: 45 / Occupants: 45
Component Affected: AircraftAircraft
Category: Accident
On flight from Batavia to Amsterdam, a Constellation aircraft crashed after takeoff due to pilot errors during landing at Mumbai. The pilot initiated a landing procedure in an unfamiliar aerodrome with deteriorating weather conditions, and failed to assess the terrain, resulting in a collision with a hill.On flight from Batavia to Amsterdam, a Constellation aircraft crashed after takeoff due to pilot errors during landing at Mumbai. The pilot initiated a landing procedure in an unfamiliar aerodrome with deteriorating weather conditions, and failed to assess the terrain, resulting in a collision with a hill.

Description

The Constellation operated on a flight from Batavia (now Jakarta) in Indonesia to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, when it took off from Delhi at 00:39 GMT after an intermediate stop. At 03:22 GMT the plane arrived over Mumbai (Bombay) at 7000 feet for another intermediate stop. The flight was cleared to descend to 500-600 feet and vectored for a runway 23 approach. At 03:50 GMT the aircraft struck a 674 feet high mist-shrouded hill and crashed. PROBABLE CAUSE: “The Board was of the opinion that two successive errors of judgment were committed by the pilot. These were as follows: (1) He initiated a landing procedure at an aerodrome with which he was not acquainted, in weather conditions which were lower than the minimum prescribed for landings on that aerodrome; (2) On arrival over the aerodrome, he flew at too low an altitude over a terrain which he must have known to include a hill which constituted a hazard for his aircraft, which hill he was not able to see, on account of the poor visibility and low cloud. The Board further considered that the following factors contributed towards the accident to a considerable extent: a) air traffic control did not advise the pilot to delay his landing until the weather conditions had improved, or otherwise to divert to another aerodrome; b) air traffic control designated a runway for the landing which necessitated the aircraft venturing low over dangerous terrain as indicated in 2) above.”

Source of Information

http://www.aviacrash.nl/paginas/franeker.htmhttp://www.aviacrash.nl/paginas/franeker.htm

Primary Cause

Pilot errors ? initiating a landing procedure in an unfamiliar aerodrome with deteriorating weather conditions, and failing to assess the terrain.Pilot errors ? initiating a landing procedure in an unfamiliar aerodrome with deteriorating weather conditions, and failing to assess the terrain.

Share on:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *