The

Finnish Air Force The Finnish Air Force (FAF or FiAF; fi, Ilmavoimat, , Air forces; sv, Flygvapnet, , Air weapon) is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces. Its peacetime tasks are airspace surveillance, identification flights, and production of Finnis ...

DC-3 disaster occurred when a plane of this class crashed into

Lake Juurusvesi A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

in Rissala on 3 October 1978, killing all fifteen people on board. It was caused by a cracked

exhaust valve A poppet valve (also called mushroom valve) is a valve typically used to control the timing and quantity of gas or vapor flow into an engine. It consists of a hole or open-ended chamber, usually round or oval in cross-section, and a plug, usual ...

, resulting from metal fatigue in an

engine cylinder In a reciprocating engine, the cylinder is the space in which a piston travels. The inner surface of the cylinder is formed from either a thin metallic liner (also called "sleeve") or a surface coating applied to the engine block. A piston is se ...

. Most of the victims were politicians and prominent businessmen attending a National Defence Course meeting organized by the

Finnish Defence Forces The Finnish Defence Forces ( fi, Puolustusvoimat, sv, Försvarsmakten) are the military of Finland. The Finnish Defence Forces consist of the Finnish Army, the Finnish Navy and the Finnish Air Force. In wartime the Finnish Border Guard (which i ...

Incident

After the airplane departed

Kuopio Airport Kuopio Airport is an airport in Rissala, Siilinjärvi, Finland, about north of Kuopio city centre. It is the fifth busiest airport in Finland, as measured by the number of passengers (ca. 235,411 (2017). History Kuopio Airport was completed ...

at 21:31 local time, one of its engines lost power. The pilot attempted to return to the airport, but during the turn, the aircraft lost altitude and impacted Lake Juurusvesi. This happened only seconds after the pilot, Kari Halmetoja, had informed the flight control about the problem. The weather was very windy at the time.

Aircraft

The aircraft destroyed, with

serial number DO-10, was originally a Douglas C-47A-1-DK transport aircraft, USAAF serial number 42-92268. Built by the

Douglas Aircraft Corporation The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer based in Southern California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas Sr. and later merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas; it then operated as ...

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

in 1943, it initially served in the CBI theatre in World War II, and was transferred to the RAF in January 1944 with serial number FL626.

Aero Aero is a Greek prefix relating to flight and air. In British English, it is used as an adjective related to flight (e.g., as a shortened substitute for aeroplane). Aero, Ærø, or Aeros may refer to: Aeronautics Airlines and companies * Aero (P ...

purchased the aircraft in September 1955, and it was converted into a cargo plane in 1961. It was sold to the Finnish Air Force in 1970 and served as a paratrooper transport plane. It also participated in filming the motion picture '' A Bridge Too Far'' in 1976.

Investigation

The primary cause of the accident was found to be mechanical failure resulting from a fatigue breakdown in one of the

cylinder A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infin ...

s of the right-side engine, which resulted in cracking of an

. The airplane had been maintained and was checked the previous day, but the crack would only have been visible by partially disassembling the engine. There was no

flight recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has b ...

on board so no technical investigation of the pilots' actions could be made, but the official investigation determined that the pilot had likely turned too steeply because it should be possible to bring a plane of this type back with just one engine. The investigation board also speculated that the attention of the crew was concentrated on the engine failure instead of flying with one engine, possibly due to carrying out engine fire drills.Muisti: ''Uutinen Rissalasta – Rissalan lento-onnettomuus 1978''. YLE TV1, 1 December 2013.

Aftermath

The accident hastened by two years the replacement of the aging DC-3 fleet of the Finnish Air Force with

Fokker F.27 The Fokker F27 Friendship is a turboprop airliner developed and manufactured by the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker. It is the most numerous post-war aircraft manufactured in the Netherlands; the F27 was also one of the most successful Europe ...

s. Air force and Finnair pilots were also given more training for emergency situations and flying in challenging wind conditions. A memorial was later erected at Utti Airport, where the fateful flight originally took off. Among the victims were three sitting members of the

Finnish Parliament The Parliament of Finland ( ; ) is the unicameral and supreme legislature of Finland, founded on 9 May 1906. In accordance with the Constitution of Finland, sovereignty belongs to the people, and that power is vested in the Parliament. The ...

: Olavi Majlander,

Arto Merisaari Arto Allan Merisaari (18 March 1940 – 3 October 1978) was a Finnish jurist and politician, born in Aura. He was a member of the Parliament of Finland from 1975 until his death in the 1978 Finnish Air Force DC-3 crash. He represented the Finni ...

, and

Kirsti Hollming Kirsti is a feminine given name. Related names include Kersti, Kirsten, Kjersti. Notable people with the name include: * Kirsti Andersen (born 1941), Danish historian of mathematics * Kirsti Bergstø (born 1981), Norwegian politician * Kirsti Bi ...

. Tarja Halonen, the future

President of Finland The president of the Republic of Finland ( fi, Suomen tasavallan presidentti; sv, Republiken Finlands president) is the head of state of Finland. Under the Constitution of Finland, executive power is vested in the Finnish Government and the p ...

, then lawyer for the

Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions, usually referred to by the acronym SAK ( fi, Suomen Ammattiliittojen Keskusjärjestö; sv, Finlands Fackförbunds Centralorganisation, FFC) is the largest trade union confederation in Finland. Its ...

, would have been a passenger on the flight had her doctor not advised her not to fly, due to her late-stage pregnancy. MP Kirsti Hollming on the other hand was not supposed to be on the plane, but a speech she held in Kuopio was delayed and she was offered an opportunity to take the flight home.

Notes

References

External links

* {{coord, 63.01, 27.82, display=title Aviation accidents and incidents in 1978 Airliner accidents and incidents caused by mechanical failure Aviation accidents and incidents in Finland 1978 in Finland Accidents and incidents involving the Douglas C-47 Skytrain October 1978 events in Europe