Purmo air accident

The Purmo air accident occurred on 12 February 1942, when a German Junkers Ju 52 transport aircraft (code 9P + GU and serial number 6384) made a forced landing in the village of Porkholma in the parish of Purmo. The aircraft was on a regular courier flight from Pori to Oulu and carried a crew of four as well as six military and two civilian passengers. Six of those on board were killed in the accident, of whom three belonged to the crew, two were military passengers and one a civilian passenger.

The Junkers departed Pori in the morning towards Oulu. North of Kauhava, ice began to accumulate on the aircraft's wings because of the humid air, and it began to lose altitude and controllability. The aircraft's pilot, Oberleutnant Wilhelm Letuha, decided to turn back towards Kauhava airfield, which was about 30 kilometres away. The aircraft, however, sank so quickly that the pilot forced to attempt a forced landing on the ice of the Purmo river. He had to, however, avoid the Porkholma road bridge that unexpectedly appeared in front of him. The aircraft just barely managed to clear the nearby Rantala hill, but behind the hill it stalled and plunged in an almost vertical position into a boggy fen growing young pine forest, known as Tervasneva. The time was then about 11 in the morning.

In the impact the front of the aircraft, including the cockpit, was completely crushed, and cargo on board the aircraft, including courier mail, was scattered over the surrounding area. The aircraft did not, however, catch fire. Of those on board, five died immediately and one died later of his injuries.

After the accident a 12-man German detachment arrived at the site and collected the remains of the aircraft and its cargo from the terrain. The collected material was transported by German trucks to Jakobstad and from there on to Germany. Five of those killed in the accident are buried in Pori, and one, a civilian passenger named Peter Misch, in the German military cemetery in Vantaa. Because of wartime censorship, the accident was not reported in the media.

In the summer of 1994 Atle Nyqvist erected a temporary wooden cross at the Tervasneva accident site. It was replaced in 2005 by a metal memorial made by Kari Viita-aho.