Nagpur – Madras

On December 12, 1953 at 03:25 AM, Nagpur – Madras experienced a crash involving Douglas C-47 Skytrain (DC-3), operated by Indian Airlines, with the event recorded near Nagpur Maharashtra.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was takeoff (climb) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

14 people were known to be on board, 13 fatalities were recorded, 1 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 92.9%.

Crew on board: 4, crew fatalities: 3, passengers on board: 10, passenger fatalities: 10, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. The aircraft started its take-off run and became airborne in the normal manner somewhere near the intersection of runways 27 and 33. The captain of another aircraft who had moved to the beginning of runway 27 for his turn for take off, watched the take-off of the aircraft and noticed that it became airborne normally but swung to the left when at a height of about 10 or 15 feet. It then climbed steeply on a straight course until it had well passed the end of the runway, and reached a height of about 100 to 150 feet. Thereafter it turned sharply to the left, lost height and crashed in a field located 4,000 feet from the runway. All 10 passengers and three crew members were killed. The captain Desmond Arthur James Cartner was the only survivor.

Aircraft reference details include registration VT-CHF, MSN 11810, year of manufacture 1943.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 21.5072°, 78.9725°.