KLM Flight 633

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KLM Flight 633
Super Constellation, Heathrow, 1960 (299298405) .jpg

An identical KLM machine
Accident summary
Accident type Emergency landing in the river after mechanical failure
place Shannon - estuary , at Shannon Airport , IrelandIrelandIreland 
date 5th September 1954
Fatalities 28
Survivors 28
Injured 0
Aircraft
Aircraft type United States 48United States Lockheed L-1049C-55-81 Super Constellation
operator NetherlandsNetherlands KLM
Mark NetherlandsNetherlands PH-LKY
Surname Triton
Departure airport Amsterdam Schiphol Airport , Netherlands
NetherlandsNetherlands 
Stopover Shannon Airport , IrelandIrelandIreland 
Destination airport New York Idlewild Airport , United StatesUnited States 48United States 
Passengers 46
crew 10
Lists of aviation accidents

On September 5, 1954 an unsuccessful Lockheed L-1049C Super Constellation-55-81 on the KLM flight 633 (Flight number: KL633 ) shortly after takeoff from Shannon Airport when the pilots after a technical failure on the Shannon - estuary emergency landing had . In the accident, 28 of the 56 occupants on board the machine were killed. The accident was caused by an unexpected extension of the landing gear, possibly due to a pilot's error.

machine

The machine was a Lockheed L-1049C-55-81 Super Constellation with the factory number 4509, which was built in 1953 and delivered to KLM that same year. The airline gave the machine the name Triton . The four-engine long - haul aircraft was equipped with four air-cooled 18-cylinder twin star engines of the Curtiss-Wright R-3350 type, each with an output of 2500 hp (1838 kW). At the time of the accident, the machine had a cumulative total operating performance of 2498 operating hours.

crew

Cockpit crew

There was a seven-person cockpit crew in the cockpit of the Super Constellation.

The pilot flying the machine was the experienced, 51-year-old KLM pilot Adriaan ("Jons") Viruly (born January 5, 1905 in Breda ). Viruly flew for KLM since May 1, 1931, where he was continuously employed as a pilot, with interruptions due to foreign missions during the Second World War. At the time of the accident, he had completed almost 19,000 hours of flight and as a pilot had crossed the Atlantic 87 times. Due to his great track record, KLM awarded him the honorary title of "Commodore" in 1953 - a title that had previously been awarded to legendary racing pilots such as Jan Moll for their achievements in the MacRobertson air race and Gerson "Fiets" van Messel. In addition to flying, Viruly was active as a writer - he published dozens of books on aviation. Viruly was considered one of KLM's most experienced pilots and at the time of the accident was only a year before his retirement.

In addition to the Commodore Viruly, the British flight captain Edward Roy Parfitt was on board the machine

Evert Webbink was the first officer in the cockpit. Johan N. Tieman was on board as second officer and thus navigator.

The 43-year-old radio operator Henri Egbertus Oudshoorn (born March 30, 1911 in Den Helder ) fought on the side of the Dutch resistance during the Second World War . Towards the end of the war he joined the Royal Air Force , where he worked as a radio operator trainer. Since 1947 he flew as a radio operator for the KLM. In 1951 he emigrated to the United States with his family.

Hendrik Rademaker and the 28-year-old Cornelis Johannes Maria Kievits (born June 3, 1926 in Den Burg ( Texel )) were on board as flight engineers .

Cabin crew

Contemporary video of the incident (Dutch)

The 35-year-old flight attendant Willem van Buren (born September 1, 1919 in Rotterdam ) had worked for KLM since November 1946, was married, father of two children and lived with his family in Amsterdam.

The 24-year-old flight attendant Helga Inge Löwenstein came from Germany (born August 16, 1930 in Cologne ). Since their family was of Jewish faith , the Löwenstein family fled Nazi Germany to the Netherlands in 1938. Helga Inge's parents were arrested in 1943 and murdered in the Sobibor extermination camp that same year . Helga Inge survived the war and became a flight attendant at KLM on May 26, 1951.

The unmarried 25-year-old flight attendant Bob Westergaard (born October 18, 1928 in Rotterdam ) only worked for KLM since May 1 of the same year.

Passengers

47 passengers from eight countries had taken the flight. Most of the passengers were US or Dutch.

Passengers
Country of origin number
United States 48United States United States 26th
NetherlandsNetherlands Netherlands 10
Germany Federal RepublicFederal Republic of Germany BR Germany 03
Burma 1948Burma Burma 02
South Africa 1928South African Union South African Union 02
ItalyItaly Italy 01
United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom 01
Egypt 1952Egypt Egypt 01
total 46

Flight plan

The plane was to be used on the KL633 transatlantic scheduled flight from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol to New York-Idlewild Airport , with a scheduled stopover for refueling at Shannon Airport.

the accident

The route from Amsterdam to Shannon, the stopover and the refueling went without any special incidents. At 2:30 a.m., the aircraft rolled from the terminal to the take-off point on runway 14, which is 5643 feet (approx. 1720 meters). At take-off, the machine reached decision speed after 3000 feet (914 meters) . At 2:38 a.m., after having rolled over the runway at 4,000 feet (1219 meters), the aircraft took off at a speed of 120 knots (approx. 222 km / h). The machine flew over the rest of the runway at a conspicuously flat angle of attack. The already retracted landing gear was extended again. The machine then went into a shallow descent. She passed the end of the runway and touched down 31 seconds later in the shallow, muddy waters of the Shannon River. On impact, the aircraft nose was pointing slightly upwards and the right wing pointing slightly downwards, the tail hit the water first and the aircraft turned 180 degrees after touchdown. After the # 3 and # 4 engines were torn down, the machine finally came to a halt on a mud bank in the Shannon River estuary at 8,170 feet (approximately 2,490 meters) from the end of the runway. The fuselage was broken in the middle, level with the front ends of the wing roots. Since at least one tank was torn open in the impact , brackish water mixed with jet fuel flowed into the interior of the cabin. The members of the cabin crew and numerous passengers lost consciousness from the toxic fumes. At the same time, the water level rose due to the onset of the flood, which drowned many of the previously unconscious passengers.

Rescue operation

Although the plane went down less than a minute after the plane took off from Shannon Airport, no one there noticed the crash. The radio contact with the machine that could not be established was attributed to radio interference. A luminous point on the radar was mistaken for the machine.

When the hull was broken open, two rubber lifeboats were automatically inflated and were floating on the water when the crew opened the main cabin door. Of the 30 survivors at the time, 28 got into the boats and paddled through the muddy water towards the shore for hours in the dark.

At 04:15 a.m., the air traffic controller on duty noticed flares on the water and sent two amphibious vehicles to the bank.

First Officer Webbink got off the boat and swam back to the airport in the dark, using the airport lights that were clearly visible from the crash site. He waded through the swamp, went ashore and ran to the airport building, which he reached two and a half hours after the crash. He entered the building covered in mud and said: "We crashed!" It wasn't until seven in the morning, four and a half hours after the crash, that the rescue teams reached the survivors, who remained on a muddy shoal .

The two passengers left behind, who no longer fit in the lifeboats, waited for hours on the rudder that towered over the water for the rescue teams. When the lifeboat "Foynes" finally arrived, one of the passengers fell into the water during the rescue operation. His body wasn't found until a week later.

A survivor who sustained an upper body injury in the accident died of her injuries the evening after the accident.

Victim

A total of 28 people died in the incident, including the three members of the cabin crew and 25 passengers. Of the 28 victims, 26 died inside the machine from drowning, one woman as a result of internal injuries sustained in the impact on arrival on the bank and one man who slipped from the wreck into the water and drowned in the last part of the rescue operation.

nationality Passengers crew total
United StatesUnited States United States 11 11
NetherlandsNetherlands Netherlands 9 2 11
GermanyGermany Germany 2 1 3
Burma 1948Burma Burma 2 - 2
Egypt 1952Egypt Egypt 1 - 1
total 25th 3 28

root cause

According to the official accident report, the accident was caused by an unexpected extension of the landing gear and the incorrect reaction of the pilot flying to it. The captain reduced the engine power prematurely. Another problem was a warning light that had been defective for a long time for the retraction of the landing gear. Viruly dismissed responsibility for the accident and was bitter about how he was subsequently treated by KLM. In an interview he later stated that he simply did not have enough time to react to the abnormal situation.

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