The DC-3 took off from the island of Texel at 16:28 for a return trip to Amsterdam. Engine problems were reported at 16:33 to Texel Radio. The crew switched over to NAS De Kooy Approach and told De Kooy they wanted to make an emergency landing. At that time they were flying at 600 feet, 11nm NE of NAS De Kooy. The crew tried to feather the no. 1 prop, but part of the feathering-mechanism failed. The prop started windmilling, causing drag. The aircraft descended and control was lost at 180 m when the speed had dropped below minimum control speed. The DC-3 crashed onto a mud-flat. The aircraft had been overloaded by 240 kg (maximum 11895 kg), but this wouldn’t have had any negative effects on the controllability of the aircraft. PROBABLE CAUSES: “The accident was initiated by a combined failure of the left engine and the left feathering system. The accident became inevitable when the flight crew allowed the speed to decrease below stall speed and lost control of the aircraft at an altitude from which recovery was not possible. Contributing Factors were: 1) serious degradation of controllability and performance.; 2) a high work load imposed on the flight crew by the multiple failure, further increased by unfavorable flight conditions and a suboptimal cockpit lay-out.; 3) the inadequate level of skill and experience of the flight crew on the DC-3 to be able to cope with this specific emergency situation.”