Muotathal Heuberge air accident

In the air accident on the Muotathal Heuberge on 27 August 1938, four of five aircraft in a formation of Fokker C.V-E combat aircraft of Fliegerstaffel 10 of the Swiss Air Force were smashed against the Heuberge in the Muotathal. The aircraft were to be ferried to Bellinzona Airfield and were due to take part in the International Flying Days in Lugano the next day. To this day it is the largest accident of the Swiss Air Force.

Sequence of the accident

The five two-seat aircraft took off at 15:33 on Saturday afternoon from Dübendorf Military Airfield and flew in a wedge-shaped formation with visual contact towards the Alps. A direction-finding exercise from Dübendorf to Disentis was planned. At that time dense clouds hung over the area of the Heuberge in the Muotathal, which the commander, Captain Décio Bacilieri, also noticed.

In order to counter the danger of a collision in the clouds, the commander began a wide right-hand turn over the Muotathal at around 2000 metres altitude to return to Dübendorf. During this manoeuvre, however, the formation entered dense cloud and fog. After crossing the Heuberge, whose ridge lies at 1700–2200 metres above sea level, Capt. Bacilieri's aircraft went into a sideslip, crashed at 1900 metres altitude onto the north-west slope of the Drusberg (CH1903 706'100/207'300) and caught fire. Bacilieri and his observer H. Sommerhalder survived with serious injuries and were able to fetch help under their own power. Décio Bacilieri later died, on 7 September 1938, from the consequences of the accident in Einsiedeln hospital.

Three of the four other aircraft were smashed against the southern slopes of the Heuberge at altitudes between 1400 and 1680 metres (CH1903 703'000/205'600, 703'700/205'800 and 702'100/205'700). All six crew members were killed. The aircraft that did not crash flew via the Walensee and the Rhine Valley to the Oberalp Pass and then over the Gotthard to Bellinzona.