1961 Malév Hungarian Airlines Douglas C-47 Skytrain crash

On August 6, 1961, a Malév Hungarian Airlines Douglas TS-62 passenger aircraft, registration HA-TSA, crashed during a sightseeing flight in a residential area in the 14th district of Budapest, Hungary, killing all 27 people on board and three others on the ground. It was the first fatal accident in Malév's history.

Flight

One of the services offered by Malév that was very popular at the time were the sightseeing flights over the capital. On Sunday, 6 August 1961, the aircraft made sightseeing flights over Budapest under the command of Captain Róbert Hoffmann. The flight, which ended in an accident, was the fifth flight of the day. It left the airport at 15:44 and flew over Zugló. The flight would have taken 12 minutes. The aircraft (presumably for the amusement of the passengers) performed a wavy line flight, then began a left turn at an altitude of approximately 450 metres, after which, according to the ex-post calculations, it performed a left-right wing roll at 400 metres, with climb and descent. The nose lifted due to the elevator being held too long, the aircraft rolled to the right and then, with a severe loss of speed, turned onto its back and crashed into the apartment building at 224 Lumumba Street in a corkscrew. (The street is now called Róna Street).

The airplane did not catch fire or explode, so the building did not collapse and none of its occupants were killed. But on impact, the fuselage broke in two, the front part remained on the roof and the tail part fell down, crushing to death three young people (aged 20, 17 and 13) who were fixing their bicycles in the yard of the house. The airplane's four crew members, 17 adults and six child passengers (the youngest was only five years old) lost their lives. As it turned out, despite the 'air show', none of the passengers were fastened in their seat belts. A seriously injured woman and a three-month-old baby with minor injuries had to be rescued from the damaged building. It was only the next day that the wreckage could be pulled down and the cockpit was accessed, where the investigation revealed six bodies (two female passengers were in the cockpit without permission, while the flight mechanic was not there).