Lourenço Marques – Douala – Lisbon – Luxembourg

On March 4, 1962 at 07:21 PM, Lourenço Marques – Douala – Lisbon – Luxembourg experienced a crash involving Douglas DC-7, operated by Caledonian Airways, with the event recorded near Douala Littoral.

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

111 people were known to be on board, 111 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 10, crew fatalities: 10, passengers on board: 101, passenger fatalities: 101, other fatalities: 0.

The aircraft lined up on runway 12 and took at 1820 GMT (night takeoff evening twilight ended at 1756 hours). According to the controller on duty at the control tower the aircraft's landing lights were not on during the take-off. The aircraft lifted off runway 12 after what appeared to be an unusually long run of approximately 2,300 meters (of 2,850 meters available) after release of the brakes and gained height with difficulty. The anti-collision light was seen at a low altitude and the disappeared behind the trees. Five seconds later the sky was lit up by a fire. The left wing and left side of the fuselage struck the first trees of the forest at a height of about 22 meters above the elevation and about 2,300 meters beyond the threshold of runway 30. After the initial impact in a near level flight attitude and with the aircraft slightly banked to port, it then went progressively into a dive with the left wing low and sheared the tops of the trees over a traversed distance of about 130 meters before final impact with the water of a creek. The attitude of the aircraft on final impact was approximately 25° nose down with the same angle of left bank. The aircraft exploded on impact. The fuel and oil spread over the surface of the water and ignited. The fire destroyed the submerged parts of the wreckage. All 111 occupants were killed.

Aircraft reference details include registration G-ARUD, MSN 45160, year of manufacture 1957.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 4.0635°, 9.7017°.