Thessaloniki - Athens

On February 21, 1944 at 05:10 PM, Thessaloniki - Athens experienced a crash involving Junkers JU.52, operated by Deutsche Lufthansa, with the event recorded near Eretria Central Greece / Ste<U+03C1>e<U+03AC> <U+0395><U+03BB><U+03BB><U+03AC>da.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was flight at a lake, sea, ocean, river crash site.

16 people were known to be on board, 16 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 3, crew fatalities: 3, passengers on board: 13, passenger fatalities: 13, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. Christened 'Joachim Blankenburg', the aircraft left Thessaloniki Airport at 1620LT bound for Athens. Some 41 minutes later, the radio navigator informed ATC that he was returning to Thessaloniki. Five minutes later, he announced that pilot reduced his altitude, that he was flying over the sea at a height of 30 meters and that he was encountering technical problems with the engines. A Pan message was sent few seconds later and eventually, the aircraft disappeared four minutes later and probably crashed into the South Euboean Gulf. SAR operations did not find any trace of the aircraft nor the 16 occupants.

Aircraft reference details include registration D-AWAS, MSN 6561.