Palembang – Jakarta

On December 24, 1959 at 12:00 PM, Palembang – Jakarta experienced a crash involving Douglas C-47 Skytrain (DC-3), operated by Garuda Indonesian Airways, with the event recorded near Palembang South Sumatra.

The flight was categorized as cargo and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

2 people were known to be on board, 1 fatalities were recorded, 1 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 50.0%.

Crew on board: 2, crew fatalities: 1, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. About 13 minutes after takeoff from Palembang Airport, the crew reported the failure of the right engine and elected to return for a safe landing. In marginal weather conditions, the captain descended through the clouds with a rate of 300 feet per minute and after passing the last cloud layer, the aircraft banked right and crashed in a swampy area located 5 km short of runway threshold. A pilot was killed while the second crew was injured. The aircraft was destroyed.

Aircraft reference details include registration PK-GDV, MSN 13535, year of manufacture 1944.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately -3.0330°, 104.6907°.