Lufthansa Flight 502 (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Lufthansa Flight 502 was a scheduled flight from Hamburg, Germany to Buenos Aires, Argentina; on 11 January 1959, the flight was being operated by a Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation (registration D-ALAK). On the leg between Senegal and Brazil the Super Constellation was on approach to Rio de Janeiro-Gale o International Airport when it crashed near Flecheiras Beach just short of the runway. All 29 passengers and seven of the ten crew were killed. It was the first fatal accident involving Lufthansa since it was formed in 1955. The aircraft was cleared by air traffic control to descend to 900 metres (3,000 ft) over Guanabara Bay as part of the approach sequence to Runway 14 at Rio de Janeiro-Gale o International Airport. During the descent the weather was rainy. Descending too low on approach, the Constellation struck the water with the aircraft's nosewheel; the crew attempted to continue the approach, but were unable to maintain control, and the aircraft crashed near Flecheiras Beach. All of the aircraft's passengers (including Princess Maria Ileana of Austria-Este, granddaughter of King Ferdinand of Romania) and seven of the crewmembers died; the co-pilot, a steward and a stewa