Accident description
languages:
| Status: | Final |
| Date: | 08 NOV 1963 |
| Time: | 16:59 UTC |
| Type: | Douglas C-47A-35-DL |
| Operator: | Aero OY |
| Registration: | OH-LCA |
| C/n / msn: | 9799 |
| First flight: | 1943 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 30672 |
| Crew: | Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 3 |
| Passengers: | Fatalities: 20 / Occupants: 22 |
| Total: | Fatalities: 22 / Occupants: 25 |
| Airplane damage: | Written off |
| Airplane fate: | Written off (damaged beyond repair) |
| Location: | 1,5 km (0.9 mls) N of Mariehamn Airport (MHQ) (Finland)
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| Phase: | Approach (APR) |
| Nature: | Domestic Scheduled Passenger |
| Departure airport: | Turku Airport (TKU/EFTU), Finland |
| Mariehamn Airport (MHQ/EFMA), Finland | |
| Flightnumber: | 217 |
Flight 217 operated on a Helsinki-Turku-Mariehamn flight and left Turku (TKU) at 16:20 GMT. The last leg of the flight was carried out at an altitude of 2000 feet. At 16:57 the crew reported over the MAR NDB on the inbound track to runway 20. During the approach the aircraft struck trees in a nealy horizontal attitude 1470m before the threshold of the runway. The plane flipped over and caught fire.
PROBABLE CAUSE: "The Board considered that the ultimate cause of the accident was the pilot's misconception of his altitude. It was impossible to determine whether this was due to a wrong indication of the altimeter or human error. The defect, found in the pilot-in-command's altimeter, was regarded however as sufficient to have brought a wrong indication of the altitude which the pilot could not foresee. The cause of the accident was therefore established as follows: As a result of a wrong indication of the aircraft's pilot's altimeter during an instrument approach carried out in weather conditions worse than the weather approved for runway 20 at Mariehamn, the aircraft came below the safe flying altitude and hit trees on the approach line." Events:
Sources:
» ICAO Accident Digest No.15 - Volume II, Circular 78-AN/66 (201-207)
Map
This map shows the airport of departure and the intended destination of the flight. The line between the airports does not display the exact flight path.
Distance from Turku Airport (TKU/EFTU) to Mariehamn Airport (MHQ/EFMA) as the crow flies is 136 km (85 miles).
Distance from Turku Airport (TKU/EFTU) to Mariehamn Airport (MHQ/EFMA) as the crow flies is 136 km (85 miles).
