1934 KLM Douglas DC-2 crash

On 19 December 1934, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines operated Douglas DC-2-115A Uiver (registration PH-AJU) was an extra scheduled international Christmas mail-and-passenger flight from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Batavia in the Netherlands East Indies with eight intermediate stops.

During the flight from Almaza Airport outside Cairo, Egypt, to Baghdad, Iraq, the airplane crashed near Rutbah Wells, Iraq, during a rainstorm and burst into flames, killing all seven people on board.

After investigations only a technical report was made public that stated that the crash occurred due to the bad weather and bad flight characteristics of the airplane. The report about the responsibility was not made public at the time but was obtained by newspaper Het Vrije Volk about fifty years later. It stated that the KLM was responsible for the crash. The KLM had taken too many risks while undertaking this flight and had ignored multiple important safety aspects of the aircraft. Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management Jacob Kalff was also blamed, for giving out a certificate of airworthiness for the aircraft with fewer demands than desired. Given the unmade adjustments to the aircraft and known dangers, it was also deemed irresponsible by the report to have allowed passengers on this flight.

Background

The airplane became internationally known after winning the handicap classification in the MacRobertson Air Race, where it was the only commercial passenger airliner that participated. The race had a long day-to-day coverage in the Netherlands and the achievement became immensely popular, including the production of merchandise of the aircraft and the crew. This achievement is still regarded as the most important historic event in Dutch aviation.

From the first years of KLM it was regarded as an aviation company with the highest safety rules, strict safety policies, and careful selection of its pilots. Due to the popularity of the KLM and the impact it had internationally, it was at the time not considered appropriate to publish criticism of the company, its operations or its pilots.

Flight

The flight was an extra mail flight to Batavia. After the success of winning the Melbourne race and the popularity of the “Uiver” airplane; the KLM had launched a publicity stunt “Your Christmas and New Year's wishes with the Uiver to the East — you will receive an answer within 11 days“. Tens of thousands of letters and cards were received.

On 19 December 1934 the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines operated Douglas DC-2-115A Uiver (registration PH-AJU) was an extra scheduled international Christmas mail-and-passenger flight from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Batavia in the Netherlands East Indies which intermediate stops at Marseille, France; Rome, Italy; Athens and Cairo, Greece and Baghdad, Iraq, Karachi in Pakistan Yangon in Myanmar and Singapore. The intention was that the flight would be flown in a record time, so faster than the December 1933 Christmas flight with the Fokker F.XVIII “Pelikaan”. On board were four crew members, three passengers and 350 kg of mail. After the fourth intermediate stop, the airplane departed at 9.50 pm from Cairo for the route to Baghdad, Iraq. Shortly after midnight, at 00.10 a.m. radio operator Van Zadelhoff asked the RAF base in Rutbah Wells for the position of the airplane. Half an hour later the plane is last heard by the people working at the pumping station H.3 of the Kirkuk–Haifa oil pipeline. It was at the moment very bad weather, this forecast was unknown when the airplane left Cairo.