Crash of two Savoia p.9 1920
| Crash of two Savoia p.9 1920 | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | CFIT |
| place | Piz Urlaun and Zollikon |
| date | September 7, 1920 |
| Fatalities | 4th |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Injured | 0 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | SIAI p.9 |
| operator | Air forces of Finland |
| Departure airport | Sesto Calende |
| Destination airport | Finland |
| crew | 4th |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
The crash of two Savoia p.9 in Switzerland occurred on 7. September 1920 . The Finnish flying boats were on the transfer flight from Italy to Finland .
prehistory
The Finnish Air Force was born on March 6, 1918, three months earlier Finland had gained independence from Russia. The only aircraft at that time was a Morane Parasol .
In November 1919, the Kingdom of Italy gave a Savoia flying boat to the young Finnish Air Force as a gift - in the hope that Helsinki would order more aircraft. The plan paid off : In 1920 the Finnish government ordered two Savoia S.9 flying boats from SIAI in Sesto Calende , which seemed suitable for use in Finland. This «Savoia», only built in a few copies, was developed for reconnaissance tasks. It had a wingspan of 13.2 meters, a range of 560 km and reached a cruising speed of 140 kilometers per hour. The fabric-covered double-deckers were powered by a six-cylinder engine with an output of 300 hp.
In Sesto Calende
In August 1920 Major Väinö Werner Mikkola (* 1890), First Lieutenant Äly Rae Lemmitty Durchman (* 1894) and Lieutenant Carl Erik Leijer (* 1897) traveled to Sesto Calende at the southern end of Lake Maggiore to familiarize themselves with the new aircraft. Major Mikkola already had flight experience on the S.9 and crash-landed on May 18, 1920 with the first «Savoia» delivered to Finland at the Finnish naval aviation base on the island of Santahamina . All three were pioneers in Finnish aviation and were chosen for the job based on their experience. Durchman had volunteered and traveled to Italy at his own expense.
After arriving in Sesto Calende, the Finns were informed that due to strikes and unrest, the machines they had ordered could not be delivered. Mikkola therefore reached an agreement with SIAI to take over two aircraft of the same type that had already been completed and were manufactured for the Italian fleet.
route
For the way back, Mikkola had not been prescribed a flight route, he was simply supposed to take the two flying boats to Finland by the fastest route. Experienced Italian pilots offered to fly the aircraft, which Mikkola thankfully declined; with his experience he dared to fly.
Mikkola's plan was to follow the clearly visible tracks of the Gotthard Railway from Bellinzona , which led through the Leventina to the Gotthard . This route was known, a few months earlier the Italian pilot Umberto Maddalena (1894–1931) had been the first to fly over the pass in a flying boat; the shorter route over the Blenio valley was probably terra incognita for aircraft at that time . North of the Gotthard, he wanted to turn east, fly over the Oberalp Pass and in the Surselva first follow the Vorderrhein and then the Alpine Rhine , which should serve as a guideline for them. They wanted to stop for fuel in Cologne and then fly on to Amsterdam, where the second stage via Denmark and Stockholm to the Finnish air base Santahamina would have been tackled.
Äly Durchman, Carl Erik Leijer and on-board mechanic Carlo Riva in Sesto Calende in front of a brand-new Savoia a few days before the fateful flight
Väinö Mikkola
Äly Durchman
Carl Erik Leijer
Overflight
Both flying boats took off from Sesto Calende on September 7, 1920 at 6 a.m. The first machine was manned by the 30-year-old pilot Väinö Werner Mikkola and the experienced 26-year-old navigator Oberleutnant Äly Rae Lemmitty Durchman. The 23-year-old Carl Erik Leijer, who had completed his flight training in France, flew in the second Savoia together with the 26-year-old Italian on-board mechanic Carlo Riva from Lucera in southern Italy .
At first the flight went smoothly, the planes crossed the Swiss border in close formation. They flew together to the northeastern end of Lake Maggiore, past Locarno and via Bellinzona to Biasca . There they left the originally planned route to the northwest over the Gotthard and instead flew north through the Blenio valley over the somewhat lower Lukmanier Pass . Why they changed their original plan is not known. In addition to a navigation error, the reasons could also have been bad weather over the Gotthard, or they wanted to avoid the detour via the Gotthard in order to save time. Both Savoia are said to have been seen in the Surselva near Trun .
Shortly afterwards, the machines separated, the reason can only be speculated. The 23-year-old Carl Erik Leijer followed the Rhine eastwards, but soon seemed to have lost his bearings. At around 8 a.m. he went down on the Rhine near Bad Ragaz and asked the population to explain the exact location. After an hour it started again, but instead of the planned route to Lake Constance, it flew across Lake Walen to Lake Zurich . It is conceivable that locals recommended the shorter route across Lake Zurich. The first machine with Mikkola, on the other hand, flew north towards the Tödimassiv .
crash
After several hours of flight, propeller damage occurred on both machines. The propellers disintegrated into their components, splintered and severely damaged the sensitive construction of the flying boats. Both crews had no chance, the crashes could not be avoided.
First machine with Mikkola and Durchman
The first machine with Mikkola and Durchman flew over the Vorderrhein east of Disentis after the Lukmanier Pass and apparently wanted to fly northwards past the Tödi. It remained unclear whether this was a navigation error or intent. Since only about half of the 300 HP were available at this altitude, the engine could not generate enough power for the crossing, and the propeller thrust decreased. South of the Tödi, the aircraft crashed about 7.5 kilometers north of Sumvitg into the western flank of the 3,358 meter high Piz Urlaun and crashed onto the Gliems glacier ▼ . The glacier released further wreckage in August 1958, 700 meters further down the valley and 100 meters lower.
The search for the missing Savoia was supported by Herman Gummerus , the Finnish ambassador in Rome. He traveled to the Surselva and used newspaper advertisements to look for witnesses who had seen the machines on the morning of September 7th. The debris and remains of the two pilots were only found on October 9th after a long search. The aircraft's left wing was in good condition 200 meters from the crash site, which suggests that the aircraft, like Leijer's machine, had already disintegrated in midair prior to impact. In the annual report of the Vorderrhein district physician in 1920 it was stated: “In the Vorderrhein district there were 6 fatal accidents. Two of them concerned the 2nd Finnish pilots who fell in the Tödi area of Val Gliems. None of the cases gave rise to any further judicial measures. "
View to the north: The sharp, snow-free ridge in the middle leads up to the snow-covered summit of Piz Urlaun, to the left of which the large snow field of the Gliems glacier. The first machine crashed into the mountain from the left. Photo by Walter Mittelholzer , 1919
View in the approximate direction of flight of the Savoia to the crash site behind the circled mountains. The Piz Urlaun ridge can be seen between the peaks.
Annual report of the Vorderrhein district physician, 1920
Second machine with Leijer and Riva
The crash of the second plane into Lake Zurich was observed by many witnesses. They testified that the “Savoia”, plagued by engine misfires , flew towards Zurich at around 400 meters above the bank . “When the plane reached the village of Zollikon , it suddenly made a sharp turn to the left over the lake and lost a lot of altitude. The whole apparatus burst apart in the air at 9:30 am, with the wing parting in the middle, ”reads a special report written by the Zurich police force on the same day. It is conceivable that Leijer tried to go into the lake at the last minute.
Most of the debris hit the water around 150 meters from the Zollikon ▼ bathing establishment . Parts of the fuselage and the engine sank in Lake Zurich. Rescue workers immediately drove to the crash site on a motorboat. A few minutes after the crash, numerous onlookers had gathered on the bank. Many large and small pieces of wood had been washed ashore; Countless splinters of wood could also be found on the streets and roofs right up to the station area. All debris was temporarily stored in a barn.
The corpse of Carlo Riva, who was floating on the water, was recovered by the city of Zurich's maritime police shortly after the crash. The body of Carl Erik Leijer was only found after a long search; the bottom of the lake drops steeply in the area of the fall. The two dead were first laid on the floor in the hose depot of a fire brigade, before they were brought to the forensic medical institute of the cantonal hospital in Zurich for further examination by the doctor Hugo Remund . One eyewitness recalls: “It was a terrible sight. One of the two planes had the whole skin and flesh torn from the face on impact ».
A report by the Zurich Public Prosecutor's Office concluded that the two pilots had very likely suffered the fatal injuries from the splintering propeller while in the air. The ashes of the three Finnish pilots were transferred to Finland and buried on November 28th with the highest military honors in Helsinki in the Hietaniemi cemetery. The Italian on-board mechanic Carlo Riva was buried on September 15, 1920 in the Zollikon cemetery.
The crash site to the right of the front yellow buoy
Debris of the Savoia on the banks of Zollikon
Weidlinge with scaffolding to rescue the flying boat
The engine is recovered. The splintered propeller can be seen
Entry of Carlo Riva's funeral in the Zollikon cemetery burial register
Reasons for the crash
The investigation report of the Zurich Public Prosecutor's Office of February 8, 1922, accessible in the Swiss Federal Archives in Bern, came to the conclusion that “the glue on the propeller blades was very poor”. Specialists from the Swiss Aviation Office attributed this to the use of two different types of adhesive, which dismantled the propeller into its individual parts in flight. Among other things, the propeller of the Leijer machine was missing the top layer of wood that had peeled off from the layer below. The fragments damaged the «Savoia» so badly that a crash was inevitable. The casein adhesives used were also sensitive to fluctuations in humidity.
Another detail of the rubble recovered from Zollikon made the air office suspicious. In the report it can be read that a split pin of the pipe bolt that connects the wing and fuselage was snapped off hard on the bolt with pliers. The Aviation Office did not completely rule out sabotage in its report, but also brought the negligence of the Savoia workers into play. "The" Savoia S.9 "was a very bad airplane," writes the Italian specialist author Roberto Gentilli. Another argument against sabotage was that the two Savoias had originally been built for the Italians.
Commemoration
With Major Väinö Mikkola, First Lieutenant Äly Durchman and Lieutenant Carl Erik Leijer, three aviation pioneers of the young republic lost their lives over Switzerland. As a result, Finland declared September 7th “Finnish Aviators Day”, on which the nation commemorates the fallen “Alpine pilots”, as they were soon to be called. The air force and reservist units lay a wreath in the Hietaniemi cemetery in Helsinki.
In the late summer of 1959, the municipality of Zollikon erected a memorial with the bronze sculpture "Falling Warrior" created by the English sculptor Henry Moore in honor of the two crew members who died . The loan from the Walter A. Bechtler Foundation was removed again in 2007. Today a plaque commemorates the tragedy.
Memorial plaque in Zollikon on the sea wall in front of the crash site
The grave of Durchman, Mikkola and Leijer in the Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki
Movie
A Finnish film team produced a documentary about the crashes 100 years later; The director of the film is Illka Liettu. The focus should not be on the sad end of the flights, but on the courage and bravery of the pilots. The route was followed in a simulator with a propeller airplane of comparable performance. In the simulation, too, the machine ran into major difficulties on Piz Urlaun when it approached the mountain at a height that would have been sufficient for the Gotthard route originally planned. The simulation flight was carried out by flight instructor Ville Ranki and Jukka O. Kauppinen, the publisher of the Finnish aviation magazine Siivet-Wings.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The death of the Finnish Alpine pilots . Andreas Hess in: Schweizer Soldat, September 2020, p. 51
- ↑ Hans-Heiri Stapfer : Was it sabotage? Finnish aviator drama . In: Cockpit 9/2010, p. 44
- ^ Hans-Heiri Stapfer : Drama about Zollikon . In: Zolliker Jahrheft 2020, Zollikon 2020, p. 25
- ↑ Andreas Hess: The death of the Finnish alpine pilots. In: Swiss Soldier , September 2020.
- ↑ Marta Vigato: Il più grande trasvolatore della storia nasce a Bottrighe: l'eroe Umberto Maddalena. In: adria.italiani.it. November 19, 2018, accessed October 29, 2020 (Italian).
- ↑ a b Eriikka Hienola, Simo-Pekka Penttinen: Ilmavoimien vainajien muistopäivä sai alkunsa alppiturmasta Sveitsissä: Mikkola ja Durchman putoavat. In: ilmakilta.info. September 6, 2013, archived from the original on February 14, 2015 ; accessed on October 29, 2020 (Finnish).
- ↑ Andreas Hess: The death of the Finnish alpine pilots . In: Swiss soldier. September 2020, pp. 51–55.
- ^ Emil Walder: Aviator death in Lake Zurich . In: Zolliker yearbook 1990, p. 13
- ^ Hans-Heiri Stapfer : Drama about Zollikon . In: Zolliker Jahrheft 2020, Zollikon 2020, p. 25
- ↑ a b Alppilentäjät dokumenttielokuva: Elokuvan trailerit. In: alppilentajat.fi. Retrieved October 29, 2020 (Finnish, trailer for the Finnish film “Alpenpiloten”).
- ↑ Andreas Hess: The death of the Finnish alpine pilots. In: Schweizer Soldat , September 2020, p. 53.
- ↑ Tragedia alpeilla 1920. In: Alppilentajat.fi. January 21, 2020, accessed October 29, 2020 (Finnish).
- ↑ Andreas Hess: The death of the Finnish alpine pilots. In: Schweizer Soldat , September 2020, pp. 51–55.