Anniversary – IL-18 HA-MOH crash at Budapest-Ferihegy airport
On 10-10-2009, in Anniversaries, by steve
35 year anniversary on 15 January 2010
Some anniversaries are occasions for sadness and a moment’s silence. An aircraft crash is always sad, a huge loss for everyone involved. When HA-MOH flew into the ground in the early evening of 15 January 1975 only 9 crew members were on board and they all lost their lives. She was on a positioning flight coming home from Berlin. They were stuck there for several days, waiting for the visibility to improve in Budapest.
The plane struck the ground 1360 meters from the runways threshold and about 120 meters from the centerline. The probable cause has been given as bad weather, darkness, fog, lack of crew coordination and possibly spatial disorientation.
I was off-duty that day and next morning, with the fog still lingering like an ethereal scarf of mourning, we were greeted by the blackened vertical stabilizer rising out of the ground with the rest of the plane in palm-sized pieces.
It is always sad to see colleagues go like this and one can only hope that their departure West has at least given some lessons to ponder for those who kept flying in the years since.
The flight plan form shown here dates from 9 days before the crash and the flight was flown by a different crew although the aircraft was the same. The original paper sheet was recovered from the wreckage of the plane. It was left onboard and somehow survived the flames. The IL-18 graphic was added years later by our contributor jozsi.
You can read more about that fateful day, including recollections of the air traffic controllers handling the accident flight, in jozsi’s forthcoming book… watch Roger-Wilco for an announcement when it is published.
