Air accident involving a Transall C-160 in Crete in 1975
| Air accident involving a Transall C-160 in Crete in 1975 | |
|---|---|
 Transall C-160, 1983 |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Controlled flight into terrain |
| place | Crete , Greece |
| date | February 9, 1975 |
| Fatalities | 42 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Transall C-160 |
| operator |
 air force
|
| Mark | 50 + 63 |
| Surname | German Air Force |
| Departure airport |
 Hohn Air Base
|
| Destination airport |
 Chania airport
|
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
When air accident a Transall C-160 in Crete ( Controlled flight into terrain ) crashed on February 9, 1975, a machine of air transport squadron 63 of scorn in Rendsburg during an instrument approach to the airport of Chania on Crete . None of the 42 occupants on board survived the accident.
course
As part of the annual sharp firing of the anti-aircraft missile units of the Bundeswehr (FlaRak), soldiers of the anti-aircraft missile battalion 39 from Süderbrarup were to be relocated to Crete; a crew of LTG 63 was commissioned with the execution of the flight. In 1968, the squadron was the first of the three air transport squadrons to convert to the Transall and assigned Captain Karl Heinz Schacht as commander , who had 5,200 flight hours, and as co-pilot Colonel Elmar Schlottmann, 39, who was commodore of the until October 1, 1974 LTG 63 and, as a so-called “ticket holder”, was regularly ordered to fly to Rendsburg in order to maintain his pilot license. It had just over 3,000 hours up to the time of the accident.
The flight proceeded without any special incidents, the aircraft reported for the last time at 14:22 local time on the frequency of the control tower in Chania and stated that it had sunk to 9,000 feet (2740 meters ) and was turning on the final approach course. A short time later, the machine collided with the Malotyra at an altitude of 1,700 meters above sea level . At the time of the accident, the aircraft was flying under instrument flight conditions, there was a snowstorm, so the pilots had to rely on their instruments alone during the approach.
root cause
Since the crew did not transmit any radio messages that indicated a technical problem until the impact, it was assumed that the brief deflection of a needle on the TACAN navigation device led the crew to believe they were much closer to Chania Airport than they did at that time were; the two pilots continued their descent and finally collided with the scenery. Although the crew had calculated that they would fly over the radio beacon at 14:24, no one noticed that the assumed overflight had taken place two minutes earlier.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jörg: Commemoration of the crash on Crete. (No longer available online.) In: Radio-Kreta.de. February 9, 2013, archived from the original on December 8, 2014 ; accessed on December 13, 2014 .
- ↑ a b c d Deadly Loop . In: Der Spiegel . No. 8 , 1975 ( online ). Quote: "Evidence suggests that the 42 dead in Crete were the victims of a navigation error by the crew."
Coordinates: 35 ° 20 ′ 56.7 ″ N , 24 ° 1 ′ 1.4 ″ E