Swissair Douglas DC-3 HB-IRK accident
Douglas DC-3 · Probably stall
From Zurich Airport (ZRH/LSZH), Switzerland to Zurich Airport (ZRH/LSZH), Switzerland
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
- 9 · 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
- 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
- HB-IRK
- Operator
- Swissair
- Onboard fatalities
- 9
- Route
- From Zurich Airport (ZRH/LSZH), SwitzerlandTo Zurich Airport (ZRH/LSZH), Switzerland
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 Swissair aircraft with the registration HB-IRK was a Douglas DC-3 that crashed into Lake Constance during a training flight on 18 June 1957. All people on board were killed.
Sequence of events
The DC-3, built in 1944, took off from Zurich Airport at 08:57 on a training flight. The purpose of the flight was the training of pilot candidates (VFR flight exercises with shutdown of an engine and feathering of the propeller in cruise flight) as well as the performance of some tests by the Swissair planning department for a revision of the DC-3 performance table.
Eyewitnesses saw the aircraft flying in various directions at an altitude of 1000 to 3000 metres in the Lake Constance area. At 10:20 the aircraft was seen in level flight between Romanshorn and Arbon when it suddenly entered a spin. It struck the water in a very steep dive.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall der Douglas DC-3 HB-IRK der Swissair” (revision 252212699, 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 Douglas DC-3 HB-IRK der Swissair
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 252212699 · 2025-01-13 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q126165360
- 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 Douglas DC-3 HB-IRK der Swissair" (page 13110730, revision 252212699), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17)
- 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 is an airline according to Wikidata
- 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.