KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) Flight 844 was an international scheduled passenger flight from Biak-Mokmer Airport,

Dutch New Guinea Dutch New Guinea or Netherlands New Guinea (, ) was the western half of the island of New Guinea that was a part of the Dutch East Indies until 1949, later an overseas territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1949 to 1962. It contained ...

(now Indonesia) to

Manila International Airport Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA ; ; ), also known as Manila International Airport (MIA), is the main international airport serving Metro Manila in the Philippines. Located between the cities of Pasay and Parañaque, about south of ...

, Manila, Philippines on 16 July 1957, which crashed into

Cenderawasih Bay Cenderawasih Bay (, "Bird of Paradise Bay"), also known as Sarera Bay () and formerly Geelvink Bay (), is a large bay in northern Province of Papua, Central Papua and West Papua, New Guinea, Indonesia. Geography ''Cenderawasih Bay'' is a lar ...

from its departure airport. As a result, 58 (9 of which were crew members) out of 68 onboard perished. The flight was the first leg of a service with the ultimate destination of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The aircraft

The Lockheed 1049E Super Constellation was registered PH-LKT and christened ''Neutron''. With a construction number of 4504, the aircraft first flew in 1953 and accumulated 11,867 hours of flight. After Flight 844, ''Neutron'' was written off.

Flight

After take-off at 03:32 on 16 July 1957 from Runway 10 at Biak-Mokmer Airport, the

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

of KLM Flight 844 requested that the runway lights be kept on and permission to carry out a low pass down the runway, with both requests granted. The

Super Constellation The Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation is an American aircraft, a member of the Lockheed Constellation aircraft line. The aircraft was colloquially referred to as the Super Connie. The L-1049 was Lockheed's response to the successful Douglas DC ...

initiated a 180-degree turn, losing altitude during the turn until it struck the sea at 03:36, breaking apart and sinking in water with depths of .

Investigation

;Probable cause Initially the crash was attributed to pilot error and/or technical failure, with no direct evidence for either cause. As the accident happened at night, the pilot might have misjudged his altitude relative to the sea. The summary of the report from the Accident Board noted that there was no evidence of either pilot error or technical failure, but also noted that the risks involved in take-off and landing should not be needlessly increased by carrying out low passes on scheduled services with passengers aboard.

References

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844 __NOTOC__ Year 844 ( DCCCXLIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Spring – Battle of Mauropotamos: A Byzantine expedition under Theoktistos is sent to Anatolia (mod ...

Aviation accidents and incidents in Indonesia Aviation accidents and incidents in 1957 1957 in Indonesia July 1957 in Asia Accidents and incidents involving the Lockheed Constellation 1957 disasters in Indonesia