page_title: 1948 KLM Constellation air disaster
section_title: Approach and crash
hierarchical_section_title: 1948 KLM Constellation air disaster / The flight / Approach and crash
caption_attribution_description: English: Crash Site Of Lockheed Constellation PH-TEN These fields constitute the crash site of KLM Constellation PH-TEN on 20 October 1948 which killed all forty passengers and crew aboard. Further details at http://www.aircrashsites-scotland.co.uk/connie_mauchline.htm
context_page_description: A KLM Lockheed L-049 Constellation airliner crashed into high ground near Glasgow Prestwick Airport, Scotland, on 20 October 1948; all 40 aboard died. A subsequent inquiry found that the accident was likely caused by the crew's reliance on a combination of erroneous charts and incomplete weather forecasts, causing the crew to become distracted and disoriented in the inclement conditions.
context_section_description: The plane made radio contact with approach control at Prestwick shortly before 11:00 p.m. At this point the cross-wind over the main runway had, unknown to Parmentier, dropped to 14 knots which made it within limits to attempt a landing on the main runway. Instead, he decided to attempt an overshoot of the main runway guided by the ground radar controller, followed by a left-hand turn that would bring the plane downwind of the alternate runway. He would then overfly the runway before looping round for his final approach. While it might sound complicated, Parmentier expected to be in visual contact with the ground which would make such an attempt relatively easy.
  At 11:16 p.m. Prestwick broadcast a morse message warning of the deteriorating weather, however as the Nijmegen had now switched over to voice contact the message would not have been received. On the approach they were told of the decreased cross-wind and decided to attempt a landing on the main runway after all. However, three miles out Parmentier decided that the wind was probably too strong for landing on the main runway and decided to overshoot and land on the alternate. He overflew Runway 26, the lights of which he could now see, climbed to a height of 450 feet (140 m) and extended the landing gear ready for landing. At this point they ran into what Parmentier believed was an isolated patch of cloud. However this was the actual cloud-base, which was now as low as 300 feet (90 m) in some areas. At this point the Nijmegen was headed directly for the power cables at 450 feet (140 m), which the crew believed to be substantially lower.
  Parmentier realised the 'isolated fog' he had run into was getting denser, but due to his belief that they would have visual contact with the ground the crew had not attempted to time their flight downwind of the runway. Before he could abort the attempt, the plane crashed into the electricity cables, hitting the main phase conductor line. The crew attempted to turn the now burning aircraft towards the runway with the intent of an emergency landing. However, the faulty charts led them to crash into high ground five miles east-north-east of the airfield at about 23:32 UTC.
  All 30 passengers (22 Dutch, 6 German, 1 British and 1 Irish) and the 10 crew died. Rescue services did not reach the crash-site for over one and a half hours due to confusion over which service was responsible for responding to the crash. By the time they arrived only six people were still alive, and all died within 24 hours.
caption: The hill where the aircraft crashed. The picture was taken in 2007
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