Incident Overview

Date: Thursday 29 October 1959
Aircraft Type: Douglas C-47A-30-DL (DC-3)
Owner/operator: Olympic Airways
Registration Number: SX-BAD
Location: near Avlon Attiki – ÿ Greece
Phase of Flight: En route
Status: Destroyed, written off
Casualties: Fatalities: 19 / Occupants: 19
Component Affected: Left engine pistonLeft engine piston
Category: Accident
A DC-3 aircraft, en route from Athens to Thessaloniki, crashed after climbing to 9000 feet. The aircraft experienced a sudden loss of control due to a failure of the left engine’s gudgeon pin bearing, resulting in a catastrophic engine failure and subsequent loss of control. Intertia of the propeller during this failure caused damage to the left wing, leading to separation and loss of control.A DC-3 aircraft, en route from Athens to Thessaloniki, crashed after climbing to 9000 feet. The aircraft experienced a sudden loss of control due to a failure of the left engine’s gudgeon pin bearing, resulting in a catastrophic engine failure and subsequent loss of control. Intertia of the propeller during this failure caused damage to the left wing, leading to separation and loss of control.

Description

Flight 214 departed Athens at 15:01 for a flight to Thessaloniki. Following takeoff the DC-3 climbed to 3000 feet on a 240deg heading and was then instructed to climb on course to 9000 feet. At 15:20 the crew contacted Tanagra Control, reporting at 9000 feet over Mount Parnis in VMC. This was the last radio contact with the flight; the aircraft crashed 5 minutes afterwards. Officially there were 18 people on board. However, post mortem examinations found a 19th victim. PROBABLE CAUSE: “The accident was caused by the failure of the gudgeon pin bearing of no.6 piston of the left engine, which resulted in the abrupt breaking of the engine. Contributing factors: Intertia of the propeller at the moment of the breaking of the engine caused failure of the propeller shaft. The broken propeller, rotating, caused serious cuts on the left wing. The latter then separated and loss of control followed.”

Primary Cause

Failure of the gudgeon pin bearing of aircraft No.6 piston engine.Failure of the gudgeon pin bearing of aircraft No.6 piston engine.

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