Black Christmas disaster
Central Air Transport C-47 · Crashed during landing
From Shanhuba Airfield, Chongqing, China to Kiangwan Airport, Shanghai, China
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
- 12 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 1
- Occupants
- 11
- 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
- 4 · all on the ground
- 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
C-47
- 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
- Unknown
- Operator
- Central Air Transport
- Onboard fatalities
- 11
- Route
- From Shanhuba Airfield, Chongqing, ChinaTo Kiangwan Airport, Shanghai, China
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The Black Christmas disaster was a series of air crashes that took place in Shanghai, China, on 25 December 1946. This event involved three out of the four flights scheduled for Shanghai that day, including CA 48, CNAC 140, and CNAC 115. These crashes were primarily attributed to extremely poor visibility conditions due to foggy weather. As a result, the air crashes disaster claimed the lives of 62 and resulted in 16 injuries.
At that time, this event was described as the "greatest air disaster in China's aviation history". According to Smithsonian Magazine, it was "the worst single day in early commercial aviation".
Text from the Wikipedia article “Black Christmas disaster” (revision 1360476863, 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: Black Christmas disaster
- Article
- Black Christmas disaster
- Revision
- 1360476863 · 2026-06-21 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q17062684
- 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 "Black Christmas disaster" (page 75756915, revision 1360476863)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17)
- 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
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): Scheduled flights of Chinese airlines (Central Air Transport Corporation and CNAC) on a day described as the worst in early commercial aviation. The article: "This event involved three out of the four flights scheduled for Shanghai that day, including CA 48, CNAC 140, and CNAC 115."
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: ground fatalities
- 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.