London – Paris – Vienna – Tel Aviv

On July 27, 1955 at 07:38 AM, London – Paris – Vienna – Tel Aviv experienced a crash involving Lockheed L-049 Constellation, operated by El Al Israel Airlines, with the event recorded near Petrich Blagoevgrad.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was flight at a plain, valley crash site.

58 people were known to be on board, 58 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 7, crew fatalities: 7, passengers on board: 51, passenger fatalities: 51, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is terrorism act, hijacking, sabotage. The aircraft took off at 2015 GMT on 26 July from London for Tel Aviv with stops at Paris and Vienna. On 27 July it departed (0253 hours) Vienna with an estimated time of arrival over Belgrade of 0436 hours. While in the area of the Yugoslav-Bulgarian border at an altitude of approximately 18,000 feet the aircraft was fired upon by two Bulgarian fighters. Following two more attacks the aircraft broke up in mid-air at an altitude of 2,000 feet and fell to the ground in flames at a point 3,5 km southeast of the junction of the Rivers Strumica and Strumon in Bulgarian territory near the Bulgarian-Greek border. All 58 occupants have been killed.

Aircraft reference details include registration 4X-AKC, MSN 1968, year of manufacture 1945.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 41.3974°, 23.2093°.