1934 KLM Douglas DC-2 crash
The involved airplane in October 1934 | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 20 December 1934 |
| Site | 16 kilometres south of Rutbah Wells at a British desert fortress |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Douglas DC-2 |
| Operator | KLM |
| Registration | PH-AJU |
| Flight origin | Schiphol Airport, the Netherlands |
| Destination | Batavia, Dutch East Indies |
| Passengers | 3 |
| Crew | 4 |
| Fatalities | 7 |
| Survivors | 0 |
On 19 December 1934 the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines operated Douglas DC-2-115A Uiver (registration PH-AJU) was an extra scheduled international Christmas mail-and-passenger flight from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Batavia in the Netherlands East Indies with eight intermediate stops.
During the flight from Almaza Airport outside Cairo, Egypt, to Baghdad, Iraq, the airplane crashed near Rutbah Wells, Iraq, during a rainstorm and burst into flames, killing all seven people on board.
After investigations only a technical report was made public that stated that the crash occurred due to the bad weather and bad flight characteristics of the airplane. The report about the responsibility was not made public at the time but was obtained by newspaper Het Vrije Volk about fifty years later. It stated that the KLM was responsible for the crash. The KLM had taken too many risks while undertaking this flight and had ignored multiple important safety aspects of the aircraft. Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management Jacob Kalff was also blamed, for giving out a certificate of airworthiness for the aircraft with fewer demands than desired. Given the unmade adjustments to the aircraft and known dangers, it was also deemed irresponsible by the report to have allowed passengers on this flight.