1937 accident of the He 111 “Köln”
Lufthansa Heinkel He 111 · In the 1937 accident of the He 111 “Köln”, a Heinkel He 111 crashed near Schriesheim on 12 November 1937
From Berlin-Tempelhof Airport to Mannheim-City Airport (MHG)
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
- 10 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 2
- 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
- 2
- 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
Heinkel He 111
- Aircraft type
- Heinkel HE-111
- 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-AXAV
- Operator
- Lufthansa
- Onboard fatalities
- 10
- Route
- From Berlin-Tempelhof AirportTo Mannheim-City Airport (MHG)
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
In the 1937 accident of the He 111 “Köln”, a Heinkel He 111 crashed near Schriesheim on 12 November 1937.
Sequence of events
At 15:03 the “Köln”, a Heinkel He 111 C of Deutsche Lufthansa, took off in Berlin bound for Mannheim. At around 16:04 the “Köln” reported an altitude of 1400 metres. At 16:20, near Schweinfurt, the pilots requested a first radio bearing from Mannheim. At around 16:53 the last radio bearing with the “Köln” was carried out. At approx. 16:57 the He 111 collided with the northeastern slope of the Weißer Stein at a height of approximately 450 metres. Ten of the twelve occupants died; the survivors were sitting in the last row of seats. It was the most serious aviation accident involving an He 111.
Cause of the accident
No faults were found during the examination of the aircraft. The accident site was off course. The radio bearings taken in Mannheim were also too inaccurate. It is most likely that the pilots believed they were in the depression between the Melibokus and the Weißer Stein when they began the descent. Because of the poor visibility, they did not see that they were flying directly towards the 548-metre-high Weißer Stein.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall der He-111 „Köln“ 1937” (revision 260136435, 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 He-111 „Köln“ 1937
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 260136435 · 2025-09-28 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q18286123
- 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 He-111 „Köln“ 1937" (page 8417663, revision 260136435), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17)
- Map position
- Wikipedia article 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: 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.