Lili Marlene (aircraft)
Philippine Army Air Corps Douglas C-47 Skytrain · Controlled Flight into Terrain
From Rajah Buayan Air Base (RPMB) to Bacolod City Domestic Airport, Bacolod, Negros Occidental
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
- 17 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 17
- 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
- Military
Douglas C-47 Skytrain
- Aircraft type
- Douglas 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
- 1002
- Operator
- Philippine Army Air Corps
- Onboard fatalities
- 17
- Route
- From Rajah Buayan Air Base (RPMB)To Bacolod City Domestic Airport, Bacolod, Negros Occidental
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The Lili Marlene, also known as the Lily Marline, was a Douglas C-47 Skytrain that crashed at Mount Makaturing, near Dansalan, Lanao, Philippines. All 17 people on board were killed. Among those on board, were high-ranking Philippine Government Officials, including Colonel Edwin Andrews, Chief of Staff of the Philippine Army Air Corps (PAAC, later Philippine Air Force) and the Board of Directors of the National Land Settlement Administration (NSLA) (now known as the Department of Agrarian Reform), including the Chairman of the NSLA and President of the Philippine Sugar Association, Rafael Alunan Sr. This was the first recorded air accident of the Philippine Air Force.
Incident
On May 18, 1947, the C-47 was scheduled to fly a route from South Cotabato (Buayan Air Base) to Bacolod via Dansalan, with Rafael Alunan Sr. (NLSA), Francisco Zulueta (NSLA), Alfredo Paredes (NSLA) and 4 other NSLA staff, Colonel Edwin Andrews and Officers and Soldiers of the Philippine Army Air Corps.
However, mid-way through the first leg of the trip, the plane had been guided into the direct flight path of Mount Makaturing in Lanao, near Dansalan, at around 5300 feet. However, no one noticed that the plane had crashed until 96 hours after the plane's expected time of arrival in Bacolod.
On May 22, 1947, the public was informed that the C-47 failed to arrive at Bacolod after 96 hours, President Manuel Roxas hosted a search party in an attempt to recover the plane and fate of the people on board, headed by Major General Rafael Jalandoni. The Search Party was tasked with carrying out maritime and aerial reconnaissance over Visayas and Mindanao in an attempt to recover the plane.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
On the evening of May 29, 1947, a statement by Major General Rafael Jalandoni to Malacañang concluded that the aircraft underwent a controlled flight into terrain.
However, there were also some suspicions that there may have been more passengers loaded than the original 17, in which Jalandoni explains that "Some of the passengers may have been disintegrated" as well as the grounds that there were "women's clothing and other articles among the debris." He also states that "Not a body was found whole." He also stated that "Some of the Passengers may have Disintegrated in the Intense Heat", which led to an overall conclusion that the plane was overweight, therefore the plane may have been controlled into terrain, with it being impossible to pull up or avoid the mountain.
However, a week later on June 5, 1947, members of the Macaso Party near Mount Makaturing found body parts and parts of a plane on the slopes of Mount Seriban. This then raised speculation on whether the plane had "exploded in mid-air due to undetermined causes".
Text from the Wikipedia article “Lili Marlene (aircraft)” (revision 1353103120, 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: Lili Marlene (aircraft)
- Article
- Lili Marlene (aircraft)
- Revision
- 1353103120 · 2026-05-08 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q131417969
- 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 "Lili Marlene (aircraft)" (page 78106389, revision 1353103120)
- 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 named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- 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.