ČSA Flight 584

ČSA Flight 584 (flight number: OK584, callsign: CSA LINES 584) was an international scheduled flight of Československé Aerolinie (ČSA) from Prague to Tel Aviv with scheduled stopovers in Rome and Athens. On 21 December 1948, on this flight, the pilots of a Douglas DC-3/C-47A-20DK got lost at the end of the second leg and, after wandering off course in Greek airspace, flew the aircraft into a mountain near Pylos, killing all 24 occupants on board the aircraft.

Accident sequence

The flight took off in Prague at 11:46. The flight plan provided for a visual flight, but in view of the expected meteorological conditions and the fact that it took place in darkness, it would have been safer and more appropriate to conduct an instrument flight. Nothing unusual happened on the first leg, except that the aircraft departed Rome slightly late. Next, according to the flight plan, the aircraft was to fly over the Adriatic and on to Athens over the Gulf of Corinth (i.e. between the Peloponnese and the European mainland). According to the Greek NOTAMs, the captain was not authorised to change this corridor.

On the leg from Rome to Athens, the captain decided, probably because of the bad weather and the onset of dusk, not to fly directly to Athens but to avoid the storm by flying around the Peloponnese. He did this without informing Athens air traffic control of his intention. Gradually he evidently lost his orientation completely, as he reported positions that were later assessed as impossible. He repeatedly asked air traffic control in Athens to confirm his position and let the aircraft descend to about 1 km in order to get below the cloud cover. The aircraft circled over Kalamata in the southwest of the Peloponnese. Radio contact with air traffic control in Athens was gradually lost; the captain also fired several red flares as a distress signal because the distress calls were no longer being heard by Athens. The last recorded message with the air traffic controller was an instruction at 16:40 UTC to climb to 10,000 feet (3,000 metres). At the time of the accident a military exercise was taking place in the accident region. At full cruising speed, in darkness and while flying through the cloud cover, the aircraft struck a mountain in the Taygetus range at an altitude of 1,200 m near Pylos, 22 kilometres southeast of Kalamata. The aircraft broke apart, a fire broke out and everyone on board died instantly.

A search for the aircraft was launched, but it took two days for the wreck to be discovered and another day for rescue teams, with military support, to reach the accident site after it had been located by an American military reconnaissance aircraft. Rescuers arrived at the accident site on 23 December under military protection and found everyone on board dead and robbed.