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1952 Bermuda air crash

Aviation incident

Field	Value
name	1952 Bermuda air crash
occurrence_type	Accident
image	ILA 20000007.JPG
caption	A Douglas DC-4 similar to the accident aircraft
date	6 December 1952
summary	Lost control and crashed after takeoff; cause undetermined
site	Bermuda
aircraft_type	Douglas DC-4
operator	Cubana de Aviación
tail_number	CU-T397
origin	Kindley Air Force Base now L.F. Wade International Airport, Bermuda
destination	José Martí International Airport, Cuba
occupants	42
passengers	34
crew	8
injuries	4
fatalities	38
survivors	4

The 1952 Bermuda air crash occurred on 6 December 1952, when a Douglas DC-4, registered CU-T397 and operated by Cubana de Aviación, flying from Madrid to Havana, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean following a refuelling stop at Kindley Air Force Base in Bermuda. The crash killed 37 of the 42 occupants of the aircraft. The cause of the crash was never determined, and it is the worst aviation accident in the history of Bermuda.

Accident

The aircraft, a Douglas DC-4 named "Star of the East", was en route from Madrid to Bermuda with scheduled stops at Santa Maria Airport in Vila do Porto in the Portuguese autonomous region of the Azores, and Kindley Field, near Castle Harbour, Bermuda. It was operated by Cubana de Aviación, a subsidiary of Pan American World Airways. It arrived at Kindley field at 3:30 am, and after refuelling, it departed at 4:45 am with 34 passengers and a crew of eight. About a minute after taking off, an explosion occurred, and the plane crashed into the sea. It remained afloat for some time after it crashed, which allowed the rescue of seven survivors. Three of the survivors died shortly after being rescued. The accident killed 38 passengers and crew; three passengers and a crew-member survived the crash.

Bermuda's Director of Civil Aviation, E. M. Ware, said at the time that the take-off apparently had been normal. It is believed no message came from the plane before it plunged into the sea, probably while still pushing the engines hard to gain altitude. Four survivors were taken to the Kindley base hospital.

The cause of the accident was never determined. It remains the worst aviation accident in Bermudian history.

References

(16 April 2011). "ASN Aircraft Accident: Douglas DC-4 CU-T397 Bermuda-Kindley Field (BDA)". Flight Safety Foundation.
(7 December 1952). "Airliner Crashes With 42 Aboard". The Harlan Daily Enterprise.
(8 December 1952). "38 Lost As Airliner Hits Sea". The News Tribune.
(25 April 2010). "History: Bermuda's Greatest Aviation Disaster".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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