Crash of the Fw 200 "Hessen" in 1945

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Coordinates: 48 ° 24 ′ 57 ″  N , 12 ° 27 ′ 40 ″  E

Crash of the Fw 200 "Hessen" in 1945
Focke-Wulf Fw 200.jpg

A Fw 200
Accident summary
Accident type Structural failure after engine fire
place approx. 500 meters north of Piesenkofen
date April 21, 1945
Fatalities 25 (presumably)
Survivors 0
Aircraft
Aircraft type Focke-Wulf Fw 200
operator German Lufthansa
Mark D-ASHH
Surname "Hesse"
Departure airport Berlin-Tempelhof Airport
Stopover Munich-Riem Airport
Destination airport Barcelona-El Prat Airport
Passengers 21 (presumably)
crew 4th
Lists of aviation accidents

The Hessen was a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 passenger aircraft that crashed on April 21, 1945 near Piesenkofen , now a part of the municipality of Egglkofen in the Mühldorf am Inn district in Bavaria.

course

The "Hessen", a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 from Deutsche Lufthansa , was supposed to bring the Lufthansa flight control from Berlin to Munich and then fly on to Spain with four Spanish ambassadors. The start, scheduled for the morning of April 21, was postponed due to enemy activity. Although the weather was bad (thunderstorms), the "Hessen" set off towards Munich at around 20:25. At around 9:50 p.m., the pilots requested a radio direction finding from Munich Airport; at this point the aircraft was level with Straubing . At 10:00 p.m. the engine noises of the Fw 200 were heard over Munich Airport, but due to the bad weather the aircraft could not land and flew further south-east. After the overflying, the pilots reported: “Flying directly to Barcelona”. Shortly afterwards radio contact with the "Hessen" broke off. There was intense speculation about the whereabouts of the Fw 200 in the days after the disappearance, but the crash site could not be found.

Discovery of the crash site in 1950

The "Hessen" was not found in the following years either. In 1949 a Hungarian with the August Künstle insurance certificate, the flight captain of the "Hessen", turned up at the city administration of Neumarkt-Sankt Veit . A year later it became known that the Fw 200 must have crashed near Piesenkofen. Although people in the immediate vicinity knew about the crash, nothing had ever come to the public.

Rescue of the dead 1952

On January 28, 1952, during excavations at the crash site, among other things, the inmates' personal belongings were found, including August Künstle's Lufthansa ID. The remains were buried on January 29th in the cemetery in Tegernbach .

Eyewitnesses

Eyewitnesses described how the burning Fw 200 circled over Piesenkofen. It brushed against some trees, was jerked upwards and bored almost vertically into a forest north of Piesenkofen. The wreck burned for three days. Part of the left wing of the Fw 200 was found about 300 meters south of the crash site . At the crash site three of the four engines of the "Hessen" were excavated. The residents around the crash site suspected at the time that Adolf Hitler , Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Göring were on the plane.

Cause of accident

On the basis of eyewitness reports, it was reconstructed that engine no. 1 had caught fire as a result of a carburetor fire or lightning strike. The engine exploded above Piesenkofen, tearing off the end of the wing, and the plane crashed uncontrollably.

Crash site today

Because the plane fell almost vertically into the forest, there is no aisle in the forest. In 1997, a wooden cross was erected on the 20-meter-wide crater, which is still visible, and was renewed in 2003. A bronze stele was erected for the 60th anniversary.

swell

  • Peter Käser: Flight to death on April 21, 1945. (PDF) National interest in the plane crash near Piesenkofen / Treidlkofen. In: History and events from the neighboring community of Egglkofen. Village and landscape care association Binabiburg, April 2014, accessed on October 14, 2014 .

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