Crashed C46 Curtiss Airplane Found
Article 3
The Death Of Twenty-Seven Persons Among
Which Are Sixteen Lebanese And One Baby.
In the occasion of the painful disaster that took place yesterday
morning with the crash of a Lebanese plane, the ministry of public
affairs has declared the following:
At 1:17 (One: Seventeen) local time, Thursday morning, October third
1957, a Lebanese airline (Commandos) belonging to the Air-Ground and
Navigation transportation company took off from Beirut International
Airport .On board were twenty seven passengers among whom were a baby,
four crew members and different merchandise. The nationality of the
victims is divided as follows:
16 Lebanese, 4 British, 2 Americans, 1 Kuweitee and 4 from Bahrain.
According to the regular air route, at 01:01, the indicated plane flew
towards Saida and reached it at 1:40 local time. At that time, the plane
was at an altitude of 10,000 feet, then it diverted towards the Beirut
Radio Beacon complying with the aviation plan, in the direction of
360magnetic degrees. Nine minutes after the plane left Saida Radio
Beacon, its pilot informed Beirut Area Petrol that he was flying at an
altitude of 10,500 and had noticed a flame in the plane without stating
neither the location nor the cause of the fire. And he added that he
requests an emergency landing. His request was replied to proceed
landing immediately. Arrangements by the Airport Fire Brigade and
Ambulances were taken.
At 01:51 the plane pilot notified that he was flying at an altitude of
6000 feet and that he is continuing to descend.
At 01:53 he notified that he was flying at an altitude of 1500 feet, and
that he had lost control of the plane and the plane was crashing down.
At 01:54 the connection with the plane was completely lost. Still
attempts by the Airports Aviation Division continued with no response.
It just happened that a K.L.M airplane was flying above Beirut at an
altitude of 16500feet. The plane was coming from Karachi to Beirut. The
Control tower requested the plane to lower its altitude and proceed its
search. K.L.M began its search and continued to do so for 55 minutes.
Its pilot notified that he found nothing and that he is obliged to land
due to the insufficient amount of fuel left. In the meanwhile, the
specialized divisions at Beirut International Airport had done the
proper calls according to the undertaken law in such situations. So the
Aviation division contacted the army officials, Navigation Sector and
Customs to proceed in the search and rescue operations with planes
belonging to the Airforce and Marine Boats all in a circle with a radius
of 15 nautical miles from the center of Beirut Radio Beacon. Due to
these events, The Lebanese Air Force and The Navy Vehicles conducted a
search for the plane. So did two planes belonging to the British Royal
Airforce from Nicosia at 02:02, local time, equipped with lights and
flare bombs. As soon as the bad news reached them, the manager of civil
aviation, president of Beirut International Airport, President of
technical affairs, president of airport safety division in addition to
the heads of workers all arrived at the airport to supervise the search
and rescue operations.
Finding The Plane
The rescue operations continued until one of the British Planes found
some floating corpses at 06:00 at a Distance of 10 miles South-West
Beirut city. Immediately, the Control Tower directed the Lebanese Air
Force to the indicated Location.
At 06:10, one of the Lebanese Air Force Planes assured the location of
the crash sight and its commander in charge Lieutenant Cortabawi,
requested that all planes flying above the area be kept away in order to
be able to guide The Lebanese Navigation Pieces in reaching the sight.
Until 11:30 local time, the Lebanese Navigation Pieces had recovered
seven corpses from the passengers and the crew members who had perished
all, while the search and rescue operations continued. The mayor of
Beirut District was contacted to send ambulances to The Lebanese
Military Marine Base to transfer the corpses to the specialized
hospitals, the justice authorities were also contacted to take the
proper procedures. The Specialized department at the Aviation Division
proceeded its technical investigation to uncover the reasons and
circumstances of the plane’s fire which are still unknown. The
government is greatly sorry for this disaster and offers the relatives
of the victims, its condolences. And from certain sources we have been
told that the plane was carrying boxes of Gold.
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