Air accident in Budapest in 1961

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Air accident in Budapest in 1961
Douglas C-47 HA-TSA.jpg

The unlucky machine a year earlier
Accident summary
Accident type Loss of control
place 224 Lumumba Street, Budapest - Zugló , HungaryHungary 1957Hungary 
date August 6, 1961
Fatalities 27
Survivors 0
Fatalities on the ground 3
Aircraft
Aircraft type United States 48United StatesSoviet UnionSoviet Union Douglas TS-62 (DC-3)
operator Hungary 1957Hungary Malév
Mark Hungary 1957Hungary HA-TSA
Departure airport Budapest Airport , HungaryHungary 1957Hungary 
Destination airport Budapest Airport , HungaryHungary 1957Hungary 
Passengers 23
crew 4th
Lists of aviation accidents

The 1961 aviation accident in Budapest occurred on August 6, 1961. On that day, the only Douglas TS-62 (HA-TSA) operated by the Hungarian state airline Malév , an aircraft formerly captured by the United States Air Force , crashed while on a charter Sightseeing flight over Budapest in the city area. 30 people died in the accident. Until the Békéssámson accident in 1963, it was the worst accident in Hungary.

machine

The aircraft was a Douglas TS-62 (DC-3) built as Douglas C-47-A-90-DL. The machine with the serial number 20492 was built during the Second World War , in 1944, at the Douglas Aircraft Company's plant in Long Beach , California . The C-47 was then delivered to the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) with the military aircraft registration number 43-16026 . The C-47 was powered by two Pratt & Whitney R-1830-92 Twin Wasp double radial engines , each with an output of 1,200 hp.

Incident in 1951

On November 19, 1951, the machine was involved in an incident. After taking off from Erding Air Base for a flight to Belgrade Airport , the pilots got lost in the airspace of Yugoslavia and the four crew members accidentally flew into Hungarian airspace at 2:01 p.m. because the strong southwest wind that day hit the plane from theirs Course until it was above the Mecsek . The pilots then realized their mistake and flew towards the Yugoslav border, where they were shot at by a US border patrol plane, which assumed the machine was an aircraft of a Warsaw Pact force . The pilots then flew into Romania via the south of Hungary at 2:35 p.m. , but after the machine came under fire there too, it returned to Hungary. At 4:22 p.m. the aircraft flew back into Hungarian airspace near Pilu . By this time the Soviet Union had become aware of the matter. The machine was pursued by MiG-15 interceptors of the Soviet Air Force and forced to land in Pápa at 17:53 . The crew members were declared spies and the contemporary satirical magazine Ludyas Matyi parodied the incident. The crew was allowed to leave the country on December 27, 1951 after paying a fine of US $ 120,000 , the machine was confiscated and remained in Hungary.

Operation of the machine in Hungary

From 1952 to 1955 the machine flew with the military aircraft registration number 026 for the Hungarian People's Army . In early 1956, the Hungarian state airline Malév took over the machine, which operated a licensed version of the Douglas DC-3 with machines of the Lissunow Li-2 type . The engines were replaced by Soviet type AS-62IR from the Lissunow Li-2, which changed the type designation to Douglas TS-62 . The machine was re -approved with the Hungarian aircraft registration HA-TSA . From September 6, 1956, it was operated as a passenger aircraft with 18 seats, from 1959 it was seated with 21 seats for passengers. The HA-TSA was the only original Douglas DC-3 made in the USA from Malév and was therefore a one-off.

1960 incident

On December 16, 1960, the machine was involved in an incident in which it was damaged. That day she took off with four passengers on board from Szeged for a flight to Budapest. During the rotation , the right landing gear broke, which captain János Németh only noticed after the start. The pilots flew the machine all the way to Budapest with the landing gear down. During the emergency landing in Budapest, the aircraft overturned and came to a standstill lying on the aircraft's nose.

Passengers, crew and flight plan

On board the machine were 23 passengers and a crew of four under the direction of Captain Róbert Hoffmann. Passengers included 17 adults and six children, the youngest of whom was five years old. A summer sightseeing flight over Budapest was to be carried out, these Malév flights were very popular at the time. On this day it was already the fifth flight of this type. The number of passengers exceeded the number of seats at 23 people.

the accident

The plane took off from Budapest Airport at 4:44 p.m. and then flew over the Zugló district . Presumably for the entertainment of the passengers, the pilots performed aerobatic maneuvers . They first flew the machine up and down in a wave shape, then they flew a left turn at a height of about 450 meters. Then they let the machine roll alternately to the left and right at an altitude of 400 meters while they flew the Douglas up and down. About 12 minutes after take-off, the pilots lost control of the machine in a tight left turn. There was a stall , the Douglas rolled over to the right and fell on its back in Zugló into a residential building in Lumumba Street ( Hungarian : Lumumba utca; today: Róna Street, Hungarian : Róna utca), house number 224. The wreck broke up into two parts, with the front part remaining on the roof of the building. All 27 people on board the machine died in the crash. The rear part of the wreck fell to the ground and there killed three young people who were in the courtyard. The fact that there were not more victims on the ground was due to the fact that no fire had broken out after the crash.

Accident investigation

As it turned out, despite the aerobatic maneuvers carried out, none of the passengers had worn a seat belt.

Investigations showed that the aircraft was technically in order. Most likely the crew had broken the flight rules. Two passengers, known to the pilots, were allowed into the cockpit during the flight and talked to the pilots. After the accident in Zugló, sightseeing flights over Budapest were banned for a long time.

Media coverage

After the incident, various Hungarian media reported about the accident. In the central daily newspaper of the Hungarian Socialist People's Party, Népszabadság , the issue received little attention. On August 8, 1961, a short, 12-line message appeared on page 11 of the newspaper.

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lezuhant a MALÉV sétarepülőgépe , Népszabadság , August 8, 1961. Page 11.

Coordinates: 47 ° 31 ′ 19 ″  N , 19 ° 5 ′ 59 ″  E