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Lufthansa Flight 005 was a scheduled flight en route from Frankfurt to Hamburg with a stopover in
Bremen Bremen ( Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state con ...
. The aircraft crashed just beyond the runway in Bremen just before 19:00 on 28 January 1966, in a go-around after an aborted landing. All occupants — 42 passengers and 4 crew members — died in the accident.


General

Among others, seven swimmers from the
Italy national swimming team The Italy national swimming team represents Italy in International swimming competitions such as Olympic Games or FINA World Aquatics Championships, World swimming Championships. History The national Italian swimming team participated to all the S ...
, their coach, and an Italian reporter were on board the 53-passenger aircraft. The actress
Ada Tschechowa Ada Tschechowa (russian: Ада Михайловна Чехова, 9 September 1916 – 28 January 1966) was a Russo-German actress and music manager. Life Ada Mikhailovna Chekhova was born to esteemed actors Olga and Michael Chekhov on 9 Sept ...
, daughter of
Olga Chekhova Olga Konstantinovna Chekhova (; russian: Ольга Константиновна Чехова; 14 April 1897 – 9 March 1980), known in Germany as Olga Tschechowa, was a Russian-German actress. Her film roles include the female lead in Alfred ...
and mother of
Vera Tschechowa Vera Wilhelmowna Rust (born 22 July 1940), known as Vera Tschechowa, is a German producer, director, screenwriter, and retired actress, of Russian descent. She appeared in more than 50 films between 1957 and 1996. She was widely known as Elvis ...
, was also one of the victims.


Sequence of events

The flight departed Frankfurt Airport on runway 25R at 5:41 PM after a slight delay of 8 minutes. The aircraft's weight at takeoff was , only slightly under the maximum of . The
Convair CV-440 The Convair CV-240 is an American airliner that Convair manufactured from 1947 to 1954, initially as a possible replacement for the ubiquitous Douglas DC-3. Featuring a more modern design with cabin pressurization, the 240 series made some inro ...
was fueled with of aviation gasoline, sufficient for a flight of 5 hours, 13 minutes. This extra reserve was necessary because the crew had chosen
Stuttgart Airport Stuttgart Airport (German: ''Flughafen Stuttgart'', formerly ''Flughafen Stuttgart-Echterdingen'') is the international airport of Stuttgart, the capital of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is christened in honor of Stuttgart's for ...
as their alternate destination due to poor weather conditions. At about 18:40, after about 30 minutes cruising at Flight Level 140 (), the flight began its approach from the east to runway 27 at the Bremen Airport. The temperature was 4 degrees Celsius and the ceiling was less than . The
visibility The visibility is the measure of the distance at which an object or light can be clearly discerned. In meteorology it depends on the transparency of the surrounding air and as such, it is unchanging no matter the ambient light level or time o ...
was only approximately because of heavy rains.
Wind speed In meteorology, wind speed, or wind flow speed, is a fundamental atmosphere, atmospheric quantity caused by air moving from high-pressure area, high to low-pressure area, low pressure, usually due to changes in temperature. Wind speed is now ...
was 9 knots from 140 degrees. The resulting tailwind affecting the aircraft was 6 knots. The minimum weather conditions at the Bremen Airport for that Convair 440 aircraft type permitted a tailwind of no more than 5 knots. Capitan Heinz Saalfeld began his final descent, but commenced a go-around maneuver at an approximate height of above the ground. A few moments later, at 6:51 pm, the 21.5-ton aircraft spun to the left and crashed into a field beyond the end of the runway. The remaining fuel (approximately ) ignited, causing a ground fire that was extinguished by the airport's Fire and Rescue only after 40 minutes. At the time, the accident was the fourth total loss of a Lufthansa aircraft since the company's reestablishment in 1954: after the crash of a
Lockheed Super Constellation The Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation is an American aircraft, a member of the Lockheed Constellation aircraft line. The L-1049 was Lockheed's response to the successful Douglas DC-6 airliner, first flying in 1950. The aircraft was also produc ...
on 11 January 1959 during approach at
Rio de Janeiro–Galeão International Airport Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...
, the airline had also lost two Boeing 720-030B during training flights over West Germany in 1961 and 1964.


Causes

After the accident, an investigative commission was formed. The commission released its final report about a year later, concluding that the crash was caused by a chain of technical and human errors. According to the report, an instrument in the cockpit displayed false information, causing the aircraft to deviate from the prescribed flight path specified by the instrument landing system, flying above its glide path. As the aircraft broke free of the cloud cover and switched from instrument controlled flight to visual control, the captain presumably estimated the altitude incorrectly due to darkness and poor visibility, causing the aircraft to come in too far, which made the final approach too late. The captain decided to abort because the little remaining runway would not have been sufficient to allow for braking the aircraft. At this point, he maneuvered the Convair into an extreme flight attitude, leading to a stall and the aircraft striking the ground with its left wing first. The aircraft burned completely except for the tail section and the right wing. When the rescue team arrived they could only sort through the wreckage. According to an article in the German magazine '' Der Spiegel'', the aircraft was considerably iced over and the pilot's visibility almost impossible. According to the accident report, it could not be ruled out that during the critical landing phase the pilot suffered from a cardiovascular disorder, precluding him from being able to control the aircraft any longer. He could not control the further progress of the flight on account of the rather poor stall performance of the aircraft type, the extraordinary difficulties to control a stall during instrument flight conditions, and the insufficient height available for transition from a stall to a normal attitude after the aircraft. The copilot could not level off the aircraft because of the very low altitude. The report ended with the sentence, "Other causes could also have contributed to the accident." A pathological examination of the pilot's remains was not possible. An examination of the copilot's body, however, revealed a
blood alcohol content Blood alcohol content (BAC), also called blood alcohol concentration or blood alcohol level, is a measurement of alcohol intoxication used for legal or medical purposes; it is expressed as mass of alcohol per volume or mass of blood. For example ...
of 0.24 per mil.


Aircraft

The Convair Metropolitan 440, built in 1958, was operated from 18 July 1958 by the Deutsche Flugdienst Company (renamed
Condor Flugdienst Condor, legally incorporated as ''Condor Flugdienst GmbH'' and stylized as condor, is a German airline established in 1955 with Frankfurt Airport being its main base. Condor offers scheduled flights to leisure destinations and operates, from Ge ...
1 November 1961). It carried the registration D-ADAD. On 7 November 1961 Lufthansa took control of the aircraft with the new designation D-ACAT. At the time of the accident, the aircraft had logged 13,872 hours of flight time (see also- Kreuzer, H. -Absturz: total flight time- 12,218). The aircraft was not equipped with a flight data recorder.


Memorial

The following Italian swimmers were among the victims: * Luciana Massenzi, 20, national backstroke champion. * Carmen Longo, 19, national breaststroke champion. * Amedeo Chimisso, 19, who died in the year of his international debut. * Paolo Costoli, coach and national champion in freestyle (200m to 1,500m) in 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1934, 1935, 1937 and 1938. In 1931, he took bronze over 1,500m at the European Championships behind Oliver Hallassy (HUN), and in 1934 at the same event claimed two silvers, over 400 and 1,500m behind Jean Taris (FRA). Costoli was a pioneer as far as Italian swimming success was concerned. * Bruno Bianchi was national sprint freestyle champion (100 and 200m). In the month of his 17th birthday, he competed at the 1960 home Rome Olympic Games and raced again at the Tokyo Games in 1964. In 1965, he led the Italian team to a first victory at the Six Nations, ahead, for the first time, of France, Sweden and Great Britain. * Chiaffredo 'Dino' Rora, 21, was a freestyle and backstroke national champion and held the European 100m backstroke record in 1963. He was a medal hope for the Utrecht European Championships before his untimely death. * Daniela Samuele, 17, was national junior butterfly champion. * Sergio de Gregorio, 20, national champion over 200, 400 and 1,500m freestyle. He was racing 200m times in 1965 worthy of making the 1968 Olympic final, and was the first Italian under 18mins over 1,500m. In memory, the Italian National Olympic Committee and the Italian Swimming Association raised a stone monument not far from the crash site on Norderländer St. in Bremen in the name of the Italians killed. Francesco Zarzana directed the documentary ''Tra le onde, nel cielo'' on the 50th anniversary of the incident.


See also

* List of accidents involving sports teams *
China Airlines Flight 140 China Airlines Flight 140 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight from Chiang Kai-shek International Airport (serving Taipei, Taiwan) to Nagoya Airport in Nagoya, Japan.China Airlines is based in Taiwan. Air China is the flag carrier for the ...
, another aircraft that stalled during an attempted go around.


Further reading

* Helmut Kreuzer: ''Absturz - Die tödlichen Unfälle mit Passagierflugzeugen in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz (seit 1950)''. 1. Auflage. Air Gallery Edition, Erding, 2002, * Stern, Issue 7/1966 from February 13, 1966
Stille im Sprechfunk
- Der Spiegel, Issue 6/1966 from January 31, 1966


References


External links


Radio Bremen report on the 40th anniversary of the accident
{{Aviation accidents and incidents in Germany Aviation accidents and incidents in 1966 Aviation accidents and incidents in Germany
005 ''005'' is a 1981 arcade game by Sega. They advertised it as the first of their RasterScan Convert-a-Game series, designed so that it could be changed into another game in minutes "at a substantial savings". It is one of the first examples of a ...
Accidents and incidents involving the Convair CV-240 family 1966 in Germany History of Bremen (city) 20th century in Bremen (state) Swimming in Italy January 1966 events in Europe