page_title: Dakota VT-CLA
section_title: Flight
hierarchical_section_title: Dakota VT-CLA / Flight
caption_attribution_description: English: Replica of the tail of Dakota VT-CLA, a flight which was shot down over Yogyakarta. The tail was all that remained of the aircraft.
context_page_description: Dakota VT-CLA was a Douglas C-47 Skytrain carrying medical supplies to the de facto republican government of Indonesia at Yogyakarta on 29 July 1947.
  During the Indonesian National Revolution, several Indonesian nationalists, including Deputy Commodores Agustinus Adisucipto and Abdul Rahman Saleh, were tasked to deliver medical supplies from Malaya. Near the completion of the mission, as their aircraft – chartered from an Indian businessman and flown by an Australian pilot – approached the airfield at Maguwo, Yogyakarta, two Dutch Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawks flew in and shot the aircraft down over Ngoto, Bantul. Only one person surviv
  Although the Dutch initially denied complicity, investigation showed that the Kittyhawks had caused the crash; the Dutch later made restitution to India. On 1 March 1948 a monument to remember the event was built in Ngoto. Since 1979, the Indonesian Air Force has celebrated a Service Day in commemoration of the crash and in remembrance of the deaths.
context_section_description: Under orders from Sukarno, Adisucipto and Saleh chartered a Douglas C-47B-20-DK from Bijoyanda Patnaik, an Indian national and owner of Kalinga Airlines, to transport medical supplies donated by the Red Cross of Malaya to the Red Cross of Indonesia. The flight was approved by both British and Dutch forces, who guaranteed a safe flight. The night before the flight's departure, Malayan radio broadcast that a flight with the registration number VT-CLA would be carrying medical supplies to Yogyakarta.
  The flight departed Singapore, piloted by Alexander Noel Constantine, ex-R.A.F. at 1:00 a.m. West Indonesian Time (UTC+7) for Maguwo, the airfield at Yogyakarta. That morning, as the aircraft approached Yogyakarta, the Indonesian air force (with "Willow" biplanes and a "Sonia" divebomber) bombed Dutch strongholds in Semarang, Salatiga and Ambarawa. This infuriated the Dutch.
  After three hours of flight, Dakota VT-CLA arrived near Maguwo. After the landing gear descended, two Dutch P-40 Kittyhawks appeared and shot at the aircraft. After bullets destroyed the left engine, the aircraft went into a dive, first crashing into a tree then into paddy fields in Ngoto, Bantul. Only its tail remained in one piece.
caption: A replica of the aircraft's tail, which survived the crash
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