Gallery
An aircraft similar to the one involved
Route map
Wreckage of the aircraft
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 26 January 1947 |
| Summary | Failure to properly prepare aircraft for flight |
| Site | Kastrup, Denmark 55°37′5″N12°39′22.5″E / 55.61806°N 12.656250°E |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Douglas DC-3 |
| Operator | KLM |
| Registration | PH-TCR |
| Flight origin | Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Stopover | Kastrup Airport, Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Destination | Stockholm Bromma Airport, Stockholm, Sweden |
| Occupants | 22 |
| Passengers | 16 |
| Crew | 6 |
| Fatalities | 22 |
| Survivors | 0 |
The 1947 KLM Douglas DC-3 crash refers to the crash of a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Stockholm via Copenhagen on 26 January. It occurred shortly after the Douglas DC-3 took off from Kastrup Airport in Denmark. All 16 passengers and 6 crew members on board were killed. [1]
Among those killed in the crash were Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden (at the time of his death, second in line to the Swedish throne), U.S. opera singer Grace Moore, and Danish actress Gerda Neumann. [2] Prince Gustaf Adolf was the father of the present king of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf. Moore's body was first flown to Paris on another KLM aircraft, [3] and then to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she was buried in the Forest Hills Cemetery, during a ceremony attended by around eight thousand people. [4] [5] [6]
The probable cause of the crash was determined to be failure to remove the gust locks that had secured the aircraft's elevators while it was parked. [7] It was the worst aviation disaster in Denmark at the time of the crash. [7]
Mary Willie Grace Moore was an American operatic lyric soprano and actress in musical theatre and film. She was nicknamed the "Tennessee Nightingale." Her films helped to popularize opera by bringing it to a larger audience. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in One Night of Love.
Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup is an international airport serving Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, as well as Zealand, the Øresund Region, and southern Sweden including Scania. In 2023 it is the largest airport in the Nordic countries.
Princess Birgitta of Sweden was a member of the Swedish royal family. She was the second child of Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten, and Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and an elder sister of King Carl XVI Gustaf.
Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport, also known as Paramaribo-Zanderij International Airport, and locally referred to simply as JAP, is an airport located in the town of Zanderij and hub for airline carrier Surinam Airways, 45 kilometres (28 mi) south of Paramaribo. It is the larger of Suriname's two international airports, the other being Zorg en Hoop with scheduled flights to Guyana, and is operated by Airport Management, Ltd./ NV Luchthavenbeheer.
Zamperini Field is a public airport three miles (5 km) southwest of downtown Torrance, in Los Angeles County, California, United States.
AB Aerotransport (ABA) was a Swedish government-owned airline which operated during the first half of the 20th century and was merged into what would become the SAS Group. ABA was established on 27 March 1924 under the name Aktiebolaget Aerotransport by Carl and Adrian Florman together with Ernst Linder, John Björk and Johan Nilsson. Its first flight was on 2 June 1924 between Stockholm, Sweden and Helsinki, Finland. Needing more funds, it became government-owned in 1935. ABA was merged with Swedish Intercontinental Airlines (SILA) in 1948 and airline operations would ultimately be merged into the international SAS Group in 1950.
Jacob Louis Veldhuyzen van Zanten was a Dutch aircraft captain and flight instructor. He was the captain of KLM Flight 4805, and died in the Tenerife airport disaster, the deadliest accident in aviation history. He was KLM's chief instructor and commonly appeared on advertising.
A gust lock on an aircraft is a mechanism that locks control surfaces and keeps open aircraft doors in place while the aircraft is parked on the ground and non-operational. Gust locks prevent wind from causing unexpected movements of the control surfaces and their linked controls inside the aircraft, as well as aircraft doors on some aircraft; otherwise, wind gusts could cause possible damage to the control surfaces and systems, or to nearby people, cargo, or machinery. Some gust locks are external devices attached directly to the aircraft's control surfaces, while others are attached to the relevant flight controls inside the cockpit.
Det Danske Luftfartselskab A/S or DDL, trading in English as Danish Air Lines, was Denmark's national airline from 1918 until it merged to create Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) in 1951. DDL was established on 29 October 1918, but started its first scheduled route on 7 August 1920.
Gerda Neumann was a Danish film actress. She appeared in nine films between 1936 and 1947. She was born in Copenhagen and died in the 1947 KLM Douglas DC-3 Copenhagen airplane crash in Copenhagen, Denmark. She was the older sister of musician Ulrik Neumann.
The 1936 KLM Croydon accident was the crash of a KLM airliner on 9 December 1936, shortly after taking off from the Croydon Air Port on a scheduled flight to Amsterdam, Netherlands. The aircraft was destroyed and 15 of the 17 passengers and crew on board died as a result of the accident. Two of the passengers who died were Arvid Lindman, a former Prime Minister of Sweden, and Juan de la Cierva, the Spanish inventor of the autogyro.
The Douglas DC-2 is a 14-passenger, twin-engined airliner that was produced by the American company Douglas Aircraft Company starting in 1934. It competed with the Boeing 247. In 1935, Douglas produced a larger version called the DC-3, which became one of the most successful aircraft in history.
Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten was a Swedish prince who for most of his life was second in the line of succession to the Swedish throne. He was the eldest son of Gustaf VI Adolf, who was crown prince for most of his son's life and ascended the Swedish throne three years after his son's death. The current king, Carl XVI Gustaf, is Prince Gustaf Adolf's son. The prince was killed on 26 January 1947 in an airplane crash at Kastrup Airport, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Events from the year 1947 in Sweden
The following events occurred in January 1947:
Gerrit Johannes "Geys" Geysendorffer was a Dutch aviation pioneer, knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau, and recipient of the 1926 Harmon National Trophy for the Netherlands.
Media related to Air disaster at Kastrup 1947 at Wikimedia Commons