1948 Keerbergen Fiat G.212 crash
Linee Aeree Italiane Fiat G.212PW · Accident
From Milano-Linate Airport, Italy to Brussels-Zaventem Airport, Belgium
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
- 8 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 4
- 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
Fiat G.212PW
- Aircraft type
- Fiat G-212
- 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
- I-ELSA
- Operator
- Linee Aeree Italiane
- Onboard fatalities
- 8
- Route
- From Milano-Linate Airport, ItalyTo Brussels-Zaventem Airport, Belgium
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Keerbergen, the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
On 1 July 1948 the Avio Linee Italiane Fiat G.212PW “I-ELSA” was an international scheduled passenger flight from Linate Airport, Milan, Italy to Zaventem Airport, Brussels, Belgium. The airplane crashed during an emergency landing at 12:20pm local time. Eight of the twelve people on board were killed.
Flight and crash
The Avio Linee Italiane Fiat G.212PW “I-ELSA” departed in the morning of 1 July 1948 from Milan-Linate Airport, Italy for its flight to Brussels-Zaventem Airport, Belgium. It was the first time a Fiat airplane was flying this destination, before that time a Douglas D.C.3 flown this route. The aircraft was new and had made only 19 flight hours.
At 11:50 am local time, the pilot contacted the regional control centre at Beauvais in Belgium. The weather condition was cloudy with a visibility of only 100 metres. Due to the poor visibility, the flight crew was not able to locate the airport. The pilot would have tried a few times unsuccessfully to make an emergency landing. Apparently they located the private airfield of Keerbergen. The aircraft circled the airfield. During the landing the airplane hit treetops of the forest 500 meters from the runway, crashed and caught fire.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The conclusion of the investigation was that the pilot decided to make an emergency landing due to the bad weather conditions and the failure of both the radio communication equipment and radio navigation equipment, at another airport. To be able to land at the beginning of the runway the pilot flew a steep turn by tilting the left wing of the plane so that the roll angle put the aircraft at stall speed at low altitude.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1948 Keerbergen Fiat G.212 crash” (revision 1358130261, 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: 1948 Keerbergen Fiat G.212 crash
- Revision
- 1358130261 · 2026-06-06 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q120998566
- 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 "1948 Keerbergen Fiat G.212 crash" (page 74349993, revision 1358130261)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata 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 article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.