The Nicosia Britannia disaster was the death of 126 passengers and crew on a

Bristol Britannia The Bristol Type 175 Britannia is a retired British medium-to-long-range airliner built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1952 to fly across the Commonwealth. During development two prototypes were lost and the turboprop engines proved ...

of the Swiss airline

Globe Air A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model globe of ...

when it flew into the ground south of

Nicosia Airport Nicosia International Airport ( gr, Διεθνές Αεροδρόμιο Λευκωσίας, tr, Lefkoşa Uluslararası Havaalanı) is a largely disused airport located west of the Cypriot capital city of Nicosia in the Lakatamia suburb. It was ...

, in

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...

Accident

The Britannia was operating a charter flight bringing tourists from

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

in Thailand to

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (B ...

in Switzerland with stopovers in Colombo, Bombay, and Cairo. The flight stopped at

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

in Sri Lanka and then

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

in India with the next stop due to be

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...

. The crew diverted the flight to

Nicosia Nicosia ( ; el, Λευκωσία, Lefkosía ; tr, Lefkoşa ; hy, Նիկոսիա, romanized: ''Nikosia''; Cypriot Arabic: Nikusiya) is the largest city, capital, and seat of government of Cyprus. It is located near the centre of the Mesaori ...

due to bad weather at Cairo. The aircraft was on the third attempt to land on Runway 32 in a violent thunderstorm when it flew into a hill near the village of

Lakatamia Lakatamia ( el, Λακατάμια ; tr, Lakadamya) is a southwestern suburb of Nicosia, Cyprus. In terms of population, Lakatamia municipality is the third largest municipality in Nicosia district and the fifth largest municipality in Cyprus (a ...

and burst into flames. At the time of the crash, both pilots had exceeded their authorized duty time by three hours. The flight's first officer had less than 50 hours flying time in Britannia aircraft. Two German (Christa Blümel and Peter Femfert) and two

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland *Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri *Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia *Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports * Swiss Internation ...

(Veronika Gysin and Nicolas Pulver) passengers survived; three of them were seriously injured and were treated at a United Nations field hospital near Nicosia, the fourth, Nicolas Pulver, was reported to be unhurt.

Legacy

The crash culminated in Globe Air's bankruptcy and the sale of paintings that led to the 1967 Basel Picasso paintings purchase referendum.

References

Aviation accidents and incidents in 1967 Aviation accidents and incidents in Cyprus Accidents and incidents involving the Bristol Britannia Airliner accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain Airliner accidents and incidents caused by weather 1967 in Cyprus April 1967 events in Europe {{aviation-accident-stub