On 17 December 1960, a

Convair C-131D Samaritan The Convair C-131 Samaritan is an American twin-engined military transport produced from 1954 to 1956 by Convair. It is the military version of the Convair CV-240 family of airliners.Gradidge 1997, p. 20–21. Design and development The design ...

operated by the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

on a flight from

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

RAF Northolt ("Ready to carry or to fight") , pushpin_map = Greater London , pushpin_label = RAF Northolt , pushpin_map_caption = Shown within Greater London , coordinates = , type = Royal Air Force station , code = , site_area = , height = , owner ...

crashed shortly after take-off from Munich-Riem Airport, due to fuel contamination. All 20 passengers and crew on board as well as 32 people on the ground were killed.

Accident

On 17 December 1960, the Samaritan was due to fly from Munich-Riem airport in Germany to RAF Northolt in the United Kingdom with 13 passengers and 7 crew. Shortly after takeoff, the aircraft lost power to one of its two

Pratt & Whitney R-2800 The Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp is an American twin-row, 18-cylinder, air-cooled radial aircraft engine with a displacement of , and is part of the long-lived Wasp family of engines. The R-2800 saw widespread use in many importan ...

radial engines The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is cal ...

. Unable to maintain altitude and with bad visibility due to fog, it hit the steeple of St. Paul's Church next to the

Oktoberfest The Oktoberfest (; bar, Wiesn, Oktobafest) is the world's largest Volksfest, featuring a beer festival and a travelling carnival. It is held annually in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It is a 16- to 18-day folk festival running from mid- or ...

site (then vacant) in the Ludwigsvorstadt borough. Subsequently, at 2:10 PM, it crashed into a crowded two-section

Munich tramway The Munich tramway (german: Straßenbahn München) is the tramway network for the city of Munich in Germany. Today it is operated by the municipally owned Münchner Verkehrsgesellschaft (the Munich Transport Company, or MVG) and is known offic ...

car on Martin-Greif-Straße, close to Bayerstraße. All 13 passengers and 7 crew members on the plane died. 32 people on the ground were killed and 20 were injured. A section of the wing crashed through the roof of a building at Hermann-Lingg-Straße, a block away from the main accident site, without injuring anybody there.

The Free Lance-Star ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

, a daily newspaper for Fredricksburg and its surrounding areas, reported that some passengers on the Convair were holiday-bound

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

students who were dependants of military personnel stationed in England.

Aircraft

The accident aircraft, Convair C-131D-CO Samaritan, (c/n 212, company designation: Model 340-79), was a twin piston engined military transport with seating for 44 passengers. Given the military serial number ''55-0291'', the aircraft was the first

C-131 to be based in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, at

, where it was under command of the

7500th Air Base Group 75 may refer to: * 75 (number) * one of the years 75 BC, AD 75, 1875 CE, 1975 CE, 2075 CE * ''75'' (album), an album by Joe Zawinul * M75 (disambiguation), including "Model 75" * Highway 75, see List of highways numbered 75 *Alfa Romeo 75, a c ...

, 3rd Air Force,

U.S. Air Forces in Europe The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

(USAFE).

Investigation

A crash investigation revealed water in the fuel tank booster pump. Because water is more dense than fuel it can settle to the bottom of the tank, into the pump inlets; when it freezes it blocks inlets and deprives the engine of fuel. This deprivation of fuel caused the Munich C-131 to lose power and eventually shut down the engine.

Aftermath

After the accident, the Munich Fire & Rescue Services ordered new TLF 16 powder trucks to complement their fleet of traditional

water tender A water tender is a type of firefighting apparatus that specialises in the transport of water from a water source to a fire scene.New York air disaster that happened a day before, stopped the expansion plans. The city and state governments decided to build a new airport outside the city limit instead. Similar discussions were held in

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about its

Fuhlsbüttel Airport Hamburg Airport , known in German as ''Flughafen Hamburg'', is a major international airport in Hamburg, the second-largest city in Germany. Since November 2016 the airport has been christened after the former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt. ...

, but the airport was expanded rather than relocated elsewhere, making the airport the oldest continuously operated in Germany to this day. Flugzeugunglück 1960 in München-Gedenkplatte

Flugzeugunglück 1960 in München-Gedenkplatte

References

Other sources

* Oberbayerisches Volksblatt / Rosenheimer Anzeiger (No. 293 – year 106), 19 December 1960 (German)
''Neue Deutsche Wochenschau 569/1960''
Summary of a TV report (German). Retrieved 23 January 2019.

by Editor John Canning, published by Octopus in 1976.

Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation: text, video and pictures (German). Retrieved 23 January 2019. {{DEFAULTSORT:Munich Convair 340 Crash Aviation accidents and incidents in Germany History of Munich Munich Convair 340 Crash, 1960 Aviation accidents and incidents in 1960 Accidents and incidents involving United States Air Force aircraft 1960s in Munich Germany–United States relations University System of Maryland December 1960 events in Europe Tram accidents Accidents and incidents involving the Convair CV-240 family