El Al Flight 402
| El Al Flight 402 | |
|---|---|
 A Lockheed Constellation from El Al |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Launch |
| place | northeast of Petritsch , Bulgaria |
| date | July 27, 1955 |
| Fatalities | 58 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Lockheed L-149 Constellation |
| operator | El Al |
| Mark | 4X-AKC |
| Departure airport | Vienna International Airport , Austria |
| Destination airport | Ben Gurion Airport , Israel |
| Passengers | 51 |
| crew | 7th |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
On July 27, 1955, a Lockheed Constellation of the El Al was on the El-Al flight 402 from Vienna to Tel Aviv when it got into the blocked airspace of Bulgaria and was shot down by fighter planes. All 58 inmates were killed.
plane
The aircraft was a ten-year-old Lockheed L-149 Constellation with the air vehicle registration 4X-AKC.
crew
The crew consisted of three flight attendants , the flight captain Stanley Hinks, the first officer Pini Ben-Porat, the flight engineer Sidney Chalmer and the radio operator Raphael Goldman.
course
The plane landed in Vienna after a flight from London with a stopover in Paris . From there it started at 2:53 a.m. with destination Tel Aviv. The route was planned on the route Amber 10 via Yugoslavia . The aircraft missed the Skopje district beacon and switched to heading 142 ° in the wrong position. This course took the aircraft across the Yugoslav-Bulgarian border. After penetrating Bulgarian airspace, it was attacked by two Bulgarian MiG-15 fighter planes at an altitude of 18,000 feet (5,490 m ). Explosive decompression occurred in the aircraft ; it began to descend until it was attacked again at 8,000 feet (2,440 m) and caught fire. About five minutes later, it was attacked a third time at 2,000 feet (610 m) and broke after the right and presumably the left wing and stern were hit. At around 5:38 a.m., the aircraft debris hit the ground north of Petritsch . All 58 inmates were killed.
root cause
The cause of the entry into the Bulgarian airspace was an incorrect display of the radio compass (ADF) due to thunderstorms .
See also
literature
- David Gero: Aviation Disasters: Accidents with passenger aircraft since 1950 . 1st edition. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-613-01580-3 , p. 17th f . (English: Aviation Disasters . 1993. Translated by Wolfgang Hubrich).
- El Al, Israel Airlines Ltd., Lockheed Constellation 149, 4X-AKC, was shot down near the Bulgarian-Greek border on July 27, 1955. Report of Commission of Inquiry, Ministry of Communications, State of Israel, released August 18, 1955 . In: International Civil Aviation Organization (Ed.): ICAO Circular (= Aircraft Accident Digest . No. 7 ). 50-AN / 45. Montreal 1957, pp. 146–159 (English, El Al, Israel Airlines Ltd., Lockheed Constellation 149, 4X-AKC, was shot down near the Bulgarian-Greek border on July 27, 1955. Report of Commission of Inquiry, Ministry of Communications, State of Israel, released August 18, 1955 ( Memento from June 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) [PDF; 37.4 MB ; accessed on September 19, 2016]).
swell
- Aircraft Accident data and report 4X-AKC in Aviation Safety Network (English)
- Description of the accident
Coordinates: 41 ° 27 ′ 34 ″ N , 23 ° 15 ′ 30 ″ E