Massawa

The crew was taxiing at Massawa Airport and was approaching the end of the runway for departure when the tail wheel rolled over a landmine. The airplane exploded and was almost cut in two. A fire erupted and while four occupants were able to evacuate the cabin, the copilot was forced to jump out of the cockpit through his window. Falling down on the ground, he broke a foot. The airplane was destroyed. There were on board three crew members and two passengers, a security officer and a loadmaster.

After landing at Massawa Airport, the airplane was vacating the runway when it rolled on a landmine and exploded. All occupants evacuated safely while the aircraft was destroyed.

The airplane suffered an engine failure on approach, crash landed, lost its undercarriage and came to rest. There were no casualties.

The three engine airplane departed Cairo-Almaza Airport at 0520LT bound for Massawa. Eleven minutes later, while climbing, the radio operator reported that all was ok on board. About a minute later, an explosion occurred on board and the airplane crashed 8 km south of the airport, bursting into flames. All seven occupants were killed and the aircraft was totally destroyed by impact forces and a post crash fire. The crew and passengers were on their way to Massawa and Asmara to conduct an inspection of the public works under construction by the Italian expeditionary forces along the frontier of Ethiopia. Among the passengers was Luigi Razza, Italian Ministry of Public Works, and the Italian explorer Raimondo Franchetti as well as Vincenzo Minasi, Italian consul.
Crew:
Maj Raffaello Boetani, pilot,
2nd Lt Giovanni Lavaggi,
Sgt Maj Edmondo Pirola,
Marshall Vittorio Viotti.
Passengers:
Luigi Razza,
Raimondo Franchetti,
Vincenzo Minasi.