1974 Francistown Wenela Air Services Douglas DC-4 crash

1974 aviation accident

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1974 Francistown Wenela Air Services Douglas DC-4 crash
Forced landing due to engine failure
A Douglas DC-4 of South African Airways
Date	April 4, 1974 (1974-04-04)
Site	near Francistown, Botswana
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Douglas DC-4
Operator	Wenela Air Services
Registration	A2-ZER
Flight origin	Francistown Airport, Botswana
Destination	Chileka Airport, Malawi
Occupants	84
Passengers	80
Crew	4
Fatalities	78
Injuries	6
Survivors	6

The 1974 Francistown Wenela Air Services Douglas DC-4 crash occurred on April 4, 1974. On this day, a Douglas DC-4 operated by Wenela Air Services, conducting an international scheduled flight from Francistown Airport in Botswana to Chileka Airport in Malawi, was forced to make an emergency landing due to engine failure, resulting in the death of 78 out of 84 people on board. This incident remains the deadliest aviation accident in Botswana and the third deadliest involving a Douglas DC-4.

Aircraft

The aircraft was the 240th Douglas DC-4 off the production line. The machine, with the serial number 27242, was assembled in 1944 as the military version C-54B-20-DO at the Douglas Aircraft Company factory in Santa Monica, California, and subsequently delivered to the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) with the military serial number 44-9016. The aircraft was intended for the Republic of China Air Force, where it was to operate under the military registration 5405. After World War II, the machine was categorized as surplus by the USAAF and decommissioned. The Douglas Aircraft Company purchased the machine on December 13, 1945, and converted it to a civilian DC-4. On April 2, 1946, the machine was sold to Delta Air Lines, where it operated under the aircraft registration N37475 with the fleet number 75. The aircraft was taken out of service in February 1953. On February 27, 1953, the machine was acquired by Pacific Northern Airlines from Portland, Oregon, and used for flights in Alaska. In 1955, it was sold to Overseas National Airways, where it operated under the registration N410NA and the name Loma Dan until June 1959. In the month of its decommissioning, it was sold to the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association (WNLA), a mining company managing gold mines in South Africa, also known as Wenela. The company was involved in recruiting migrant workers and owned a fleet of buses and aircraft stationed in all the countries of Southern Africa. The machine first received the South African registration ZS-CLN, which was later changed to VP-YST (Wenela Air Services Rhodesia) and finally to A2-ZER (Wenela Air Services Botswana). The four-engine long-range aircraft was equipped with four radial engines of the type Pratt & Whitney R-2000-2SD-13G Twin Wasp.

Passengers and crew

At the time of the accident, there were 80 passengers and four crew members on board. Most of the passengers were employees of the South African mining company, returning home.

Accident sequence

The accident occurred at 02:35 local time. Shortly after taking off from Gaborone Airport, the aircraft experienced misfires and ignition failures, leading to a continuous descent. The pilots were unable to gain a safe altitude due to these issues, causing the DC-4 to clip treetops and crash to the ground 3 600 meters past the runway's end after a stall.

Cause

It was determined that the aircraft had been partially misfueled. Ground personnel mistakenly filled one of the fuel tanks intended for aviation gasoline (Avgas) with kerosene. As a result, the fuel the aircraft was loaded with was contaminated by 25 to 30 percent.

References

External links

Crash of a Douglas DC-4 in Gaborone: 78 killed, B3A − Bureau of Aircraft Accident Archives
Accident report DC-4, A2-ZER, Aviation Safety Network
Operating history of the aircraft, rzjets.net

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in 1974 (1974)
Jan 6 Commonwealth Commuter Flight 317Jan 6 Aeroflot Flight H-75Jan 24 Togo crashJan 26 Turkish Airlines Flight 301Jan 30 Pan Am Flight 806Feb 22 Delta Airlines Flight 523Mar 3 Turkish Airlines Flight 981Mar 13 Sierra Pacific Airlines Flight 802Mar 15 Sterling Airways Flight 901Apr 4 Francistown Wenela Air Services Douglas DC-4 crashApr 18 Court Line Flight 95Apr 22 Pan Am Flight 812Apr 27 Aeroflot Il-18 crashJul 10 EgyptAir Tupolev Tu-154 crashJul 23 British Airways bombing attemptAug 9 Buffalo 461Aug 9 Norfolk mid-air collisionSep 8 TWA Flight 841Sep 11 Eastern Air Lines Flight 212Sep 15 Air Vietnam Flight 706Oct 30 Panarctic Oils Flight 416Nov 20 Lufthansa Flight 540Dec 1 TWA Flight 514Dec 1 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231Dec 4 Martinair Flight 138Dec 22 Avensa Flight 358
1973 ◄ ► 1975

Aviation accidents and incidents in 1974 (1974)

Jan 6 Commonwealth Commuter Flight 317Jan 6 Aeroflot Flight H-75Jan 24 Togo crashJan 26 Turkish Airlines Flight 301Jan 30 Pan Am Flight 806Feb 22 Delta Airlines Flight 523Mar 3 Turkish Airlines Flight 981Mar 13 Sierra Pacific Airlines Flight 802Mar 15 Sterling Airways Flight 901Apr 4 Francistown Wenela Air Services Douglas DC-4 crashApr 18 Court Line Flight 95Apr 22 Pan Am Flight 812Apr 27 Aeroflot Il-18 crashJul 10 EgyptAir Tupolev Tu-154 crashJul 23 British Airways bombing attemptAug 9 Buffalo 461Aug 9 Norfolk mid-air collisionSep 8 TWA Flight 841Sep 11 Eastern Air Lines Flight 212Sep 15 Air Vietnam Flight 706Oct 30 Panarctic Oils Flight 416Nov 20 Lufthansa Flight 540Dec 1 TWA Flight 514Dec 1 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231Dec 4 Martinair Flight 138Dec 22 Avensa Flight 358

1973 ◄ ► 1975

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in Botswana
Francistown Wenela Air Services Douglas DC-4 crash (April 1974) Air Botswana ATR 42 crash (October 1999) Moremi Air Cessna 208 crash (October 2011) Xumabee Game Ranch helicopter crash (March 2021)

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