1970 Cargolux accident
Canadair CL-44J and Unknown · Loss of control after activation of the control locks in flight
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
- 7 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 3
- Occupants
- Unknown
- 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
- Airline
Aircraft 1 · Canadair CL-44J
- Aircraft type
- Canadair CL-44
- 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
- TF-LLG
- Operator
- Cargolux
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Luxembourg-Findel International Airport (LUX)To Dhaka-Tejgaon Airport, East Pakistan, Pakistan (today: Bangladesh)
Aircraft 2 · Unknown
- 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
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Dhaka, the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
The 1970 Cargolux accident occurred on 2 December 1970 on an intercontinental Cargolux charter cargo flight from Luxembourg to Dhaka with stopovers in Hamburg and Tehran. On that day a Canadair CL-44J crashed into a settlement on approach to the former main airport Dhaka-Tejgaon because of a malfunction of the hydraulic system; seven people died.
Flight history and accident sequence
On 1 December 1970 at 15:00 local time the aircraft was flown from Luxembourg to Hamburg, where 27.5 tonnes of baby food were loaded that were to be flown to Dhaka. After a stay of several hours in Hamburg, the aircraft departed towards Dhaka, making an unscheduled refuelling stop in Tehran en route. After a one-hour stay in Tehran, the aircraft continued eastwards on 2 December at 06:00 local time and was scheduled to arrive in Dhaka at 16:00 local time. Shortly before the scheduled arrival, about 10 kilometres north-west of the destination airport, the captain suddenly lost control of the aircraft. The CL-44 crashed into a settlement and buried several farmhouses beneath it. All four occupants as well as three people on the ground, including two children, were killed. At that point the crew had been on duty without a break for around 18 hours.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The cause was probably an automatic activation of the hydraulic control lock during the flight, whereby all control surfaces suddenly locked and the aircraft could no longer be steered. The control lock was actually intended to prevent unwanted movement of the control surfaces and possible resulting damage on the ground caused by gusts; its activation in the air was considered impossible. On the basis of the aircraft's flight path before the crash, the investigators suspected that the rudder had locked in the neutral position. It was also assumed that the hydraulic back pressure had built up due to a faulty switching valve when the hydraulics were heavily used in the descent phase.
It was established that the hydraulic systems had already been heavily contaminated on an earlier flight from the Azores. On takeoff both hydraulic pumps failed, which led to a total loss of hydraulics and forced the crew to carry out the planned flight to Madrid with the landing gear extended. The aircraft was then flown to Prestwick, where it was repaired by Scottish Aviation. This incident is not mentioned in the official accident report.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall der Cargolux 1970” (revision 261310027, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall der Cargolux 1970
- Article
- Flugunfall der Cargolux 1970
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 261310027 · 2025-11-06 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q97610755
- 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
- de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall der Cargolux 1970" (page 11388848, revision 261310027), translated into English with AI assistance
- 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: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: ground fatalities
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.