Douglas C-47 Skytrain (DC-3)

The pilot's decision to proceed on the direct track to Nairobi, and this consideration is not affected even if he intended to divert in the vicinity of Kilimanjaro. The meteorological conditions were marginal and his first mistake occurred in not discussing the weather with the meteorological forecaster. Had he done so he might well have decided to proceed via Tanga, although in making this decision he might have been influenced by the fact that there were no specific instructions regarding an alternate route. It must be remembered, however, that he was fairly new in the Corporation and he might have thought it impolite to depart from normal practice.

Engine failure in flight.

The cause of the accident was the presence of smoke in the flight crew compartment in sufficient quantity to make the captain apprehensive of fire and to cause him to land the aircraft immediately with the undercarriage retracted. The only defect revealed by subsequent investigation of the airframe, engine and accessories, was a fractured rubber hose on the port engine connecting the rocker box of one of the lower cylinders to the collector box. It is the option of the Investigating Officers that oil leaking from this fracture was carried by the airflow on to the exhaust collector ring and generated smoke. Tests carried out later on the same type of aircraft proved conclusively that smoke generated in this region will travel freely to the flight crew compartment via the wheel bay and interior of the centre section leading edge.

The aircraft crashed as a result of slipping into the ground in the course of a badly executed steep turn to port carried out at night at a low altitude. No importance need be attached to the fact that the captain took a turn to the left instead of to the right, as is generally done by most of the pilots when taking off for Delhi from Runway 27. We find from the record that it was not unusual for the pilot in question to take a turn to the left but the mistake lay in badly executing a turn. The reason for such a steep turn is not easy to ascertain. It is possible that the pilot may have done so in order to get on course quickly. It is also possible that he relied on visual reference instead of flying entirely on instruments as he should have done, thereby going into a turn steeper than intended, or it may be that he was misled by the instruments.