Remembering Caledonia Flight 153

Caledonian Airways Flight 153 was a multi-leg non-scheduled passenger service from Luxembourg to Lisbon via Khartoum, Lorenzo Marques (nowadays Maputo) and Douala. On the 4th March 1962 a Douglas DC-7C performing the Douala Airport (DLA/FKKD) Cameroon to Lisboa-Portela de Sacavém Airport (LIS/LPPT) Portugal leg crashed shortly after takeoff from Douala International Airport with 10 crew and 101 passengers on board. 

The heavily-laden DC-7 was making a night takeoff from Douala runway 12 in conditions of high ambient temperature and humidity. After a long takeoff from the 9,350 feet long runway, it gained very little height. Some 2,300 yards (1.3 miles) from the runway end and 500 yards (0.2 miles) left of the extended centreline, the left wing struck trees 72 feet above aerodrome elevation. The DC-7, named "Star of Robbie Burns", crashed into a tidal swamp and exploded on impact.

The aircraft, leased from Sabena Airways, had flown a total of 14,548 hours. Of these 583 hours were undertaken when leased to Caledonian Airways.

In spite of the very numerous expert examinations and all the tests on the ground and in flight which the Commission of Inquiry has carried out or caused to be carried out, the state of the wreckage and its position in an inundated forest area have prevented the Commission from determining with absolute certainty the cause of the accident to DC-7C. The commission considers, however, that there is evidence to show that an elevator spring-tab mechanism may have jammed before impact. This jamming would have resulted in abnormal elevator control forces during the takeoff. Flight tests have shown this to be consistent with a prolonged takeoff run and a risk of losing height during flap retraction. Furthermore, the following features, all adverse, may have aggravated the circumstances in which the accident occurred: - the implementation of a procedure for gaining speed which was conducive to the aircraft being flown at a low altitude - the fact that a positive rate of climb was not maintained at the time of flap retraction which, in the Sabena procedure applied by Caledonian Airways, is not subject to any altitude limitation other than that of obstacle clearance - the presence in the co-pilot's seat of a check pilot whose attention may have been attracted more by the actions of the first pilot than by the indications on his own instrument panel. The Commission had been unable to eliminate an instrument failure as a possible cause of the accident, as the instruments were not recovered or were too seriously damaged to allow of any valid expert examination.

Aircraft Information

Airline: Caledonian Airways

Code: CA

Aircraft: Douglas DC 7C

Registration: G-ARUD

Serial Number: 45160

Engines: 4 x Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone Turbo-Compound engines

First Flew: November 1957

Age at Accident: 5 yrs 5 Mts

The aircraft was purchased new by Sabena in 1957 as OO-SFD, it was later leased out to Persian Air Services as EP-ADU, before being leased to Caledonian Airways and registered as G-ARUD.