Sabena Flight 425
Douglas DC-3/C-47A-25-DK · Loss of control after structural failure
From Costermansville Airport, Belgian Congo to Ndjili International Airport (FIH)
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
- 16 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
Douglas DC-3/C-47A-25-DK
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-3
- 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
- OO-CBN
- Operator
- Sabena
- Onboard fatalities
- 16
- Route
- From Costermansville Airport, Belgian CongoTo Ndjili International Airport (FIH)
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- Aircraft › Aircraft propeller/rotor
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Kikwit, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
Sabena Flight 425 (flight number: SN425, callsign: SABENA 425) was a domestic scheduled flight of Sabena from Costermansville to Léopoldville. On 4 February 1952, a Douglas DC-3/C-47A-25-DK of Sabena (OO-CBN) crashed on this flight after a loss of control resulting from a mechanical and structural failure. All 16 people on board were killed in the accident.
Accident sequence
While the aircraft was flying over Kasaï Province at 12:05 local time, a mechanical problem occurred on the right engine. A propeller blade broke off and slashed open the cabin. A loss of control followed, and the aircraft plunged nose-down to the ground. All 16 occupants of the aircraft died in the impact in the Dibata forest about 20 kilometres from Kikwit at 12:07.
Investigation and cause
Cause
In the course of the accident investigation it was determined that the loss of control had occurred after the broken-off propeller blade had slashed open the cabin, severing control cables. The propeller blade had broken off after the right engine had seized abruptly, which in turn had been the result of a fatigue failure of the piston eye on cylinder No. 6.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Sabena-Flug 425” (revision 236703570, 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: Sabena-Flug 425
- Article
- Sabena-Flug 425
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 236703570 · 2023-08-24 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q106610507
- 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 "Sabena-Flug 425" (page 11741884, revision 236703570), 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
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- 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.