1970 Samedan accident
Bavaria Fluggesellschaft Handley Page Jetstream HP.137 · The 1970 Samedan air crash occurred on 6 March 1970
From Munich-Riem Airport, Germany to Engadin Airport (SMV)
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
- 11 · 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
Handley Page Jetstream HP.137
- Aircraft type
- Handley Page Jetstream HP-137
- 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
- D-INAH
- Operator
- Bavaria Fluggesellschaft
- Onboard fatalities
- 11
- Route
- From Munich-Riem Airport, GermanyTo Engadin Airport (SMV)
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
The 1970 Samedan air crash occurred on 6 March 1970. On that day, a Handley Page Jetstream HP.137 of Bavaria Fluggesellschaft suffered a serious engine failure while the aircraft was on final approach to Samedan Airfield in Switzerland. The aircraft, which was operating an air taxi flight, had taken off from Munich-Riem Airport. It crashed to the ground three kilometres short of the airfield. All eleven occupants were killed, including the founder of the airline, Max Schwabe.
Accident sequence
The aircraft had taken off from Munich-Riem Airport at 14:17. On final approach to Samedan Airfield, the aircraft's left engine failed and caught fire. At 14:57 the crew sent the distress call to Samedan Airfield: "Mayday, mayday, engine fire". Immediately afterwards it reported a landing gear malfunction and announced an emergency landing, with words to the effect of: "Have the airfield fire brigade stand by. The landing gear is not in order, we will attempt a landing on snow; if it does not succeed, give our regards to our families". The aircraft lost altitude and speed. Witnesses saw flames emerging in the area of the left engine and the propeller there turning only slowly, and shortly afterwards a fireball on the left wing as well as an object hanging down from it. About three kilometres short of the runway threshold and 500 metres to the left of the extended approach centreline, the aircraft crashed into the snow between La Punt and Bever GR, north-east of the hamlet of Champesch. In doing so it cut off a larger larch tree and severed two cables of a 220 kV high-voltage power line. After impact the wreckage no longer burned. There were no survivors among the eleven occupants.
Cause of the accident
The cause of the accident was determined to be a turbine failure on final approach, which led to a fire and loss of power on engine No. 1 (left). The report of the B3A (Bureau of Aircraft Accident Archives) speaks of a burst of the first-stage turbine wheel of this engine, followed by presumed overheating and explosion.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall bei Samedan 1970” (revision 270309530, 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 bei Samedan 1970
- Article
- Flugunfall bei Samedan 1970
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 270309530 · 2026-09-08 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q125461913
- 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 bei Samedan 1970" (page 12906314, revision 270309530), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- 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 airline in the infobox
- 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.