1940 Deutsche Lufthansa Ju 90 crash
Junkers Ju 90A-1 · Tail icing
From Tempelhof Airport, Berlin, Germany to Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport (BUD)
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 29 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Junkers Ju 90A-1
- Aircraft type
- Junkers JU-90
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- D-AVMF
- Operator
- Deutsche Lufthansa
- Onboard fatalities
- 29
- Route
- From Tempelhof Airport, Berlin, GermanyTo Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport (BUD)
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Fluids/misc hardware
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 8 November 1940, a Deutsche Lufthansa Junkers Ju 90 passenger aircraft crashed near the municipality of Schönteichen, Germany, killing all 29 people on board. An investigation of the crash concluded that the accident was caused by ice accumulation on the flight surfaces, which led to an uncontrolled loss of altitude.
Accident
The aircraft, registered D-AVMF and named Brandenburg, took off from Berlin Tempelhof Airport at 14:24 with 23 passengers and six crew members. The radio operator contacted ground at 14:48, indicating that they were flying at 2200 m in clouds. Two minutes later, he reported icing. After a final call from the aircraft at 14:58, there was no further communication from the aircraft. The Ju 90 started descending and crashed into a field. The German musician and journalist Adolf Raskin was killed in the accident.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
A post-crash of the aircraft's on-board clock revealed that the crash occurred between three and five minutes after the final communication from the aircraft. Witnesses reported observing the aircraft flying at 300 m or less for two to three minutes shortly before the crash, investigators concluded that the decent from 2200 m must have occurred very rapidly, and concluded that the descent was uncontrolled. Ice was found on the aircraft that was more than 1.5 to 2 cm thick, which would have critically altered the flight characteristics of the aircraft. In instances in the type of aircraft, severe ice accumulation had been found to jam the elevators between the tail fin end cap and the outer balancer. Investigators found dents on the tail fin end cap, as well as a sheared rivet between the outer balancer and the drive shaft, which led them to conclude that the elevator control had been jammed during flight. On the other hand, the damage was also suspiciously similar to that caused by a foreign object, that was never discovered.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1940 Deutsche Lufthansa Ju 90 crash” (revision 1323858789, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 1940 Deutsche Lufthansa Ju 90 crash
- Revision
- 1323858789 · 2025-11-24 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q16000679
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "1940 Deutsche Lufthansa Ju 90 crash" (page 41955384, revision 1323858789)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator is an airline according to Wikidata
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.