Date:	Tuesday 31 August 1948
Time:	12:06
Type:	Douglas C-47A-10-DK (DC-3)
Owner/operator:	Sabena
Registration:	OO-CBL
MSN:	12420
Year of manufacture:	1944
Total airframe hrs:	3040 hours
Engine model:	Pratt & Whitney R-1830-S1C3-G
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 13 / Occupants: 13
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	near Kimbwe -   Congo (Democratic Republic)
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Passenger - Scheduled
Departure airport:	Manono Airport (MNO/FZRA)
Destination airport:	Elizabethville Airport (FBM/FZQA)
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
The C-47 passenger plane impacted terrain and broke up near Kimbwe. The airplane was en route to Elizabethville (now Lubumbashi).

CONCLUSIONS (translated from French):
From the examination of the debris the orientation and trajectory of the various components of the aircraft before impact can be established more or less likely, but it has not been possible to determine the actual cause us to the events due to the almost complete destruction of the airplane.
We are therefore reduced to make assumptions.
Some can be removed with a near certainty:
a.- fire in flight
b.- in flight loss of an essential element of the for the stability of the aircraft like wing, stabilizer, etc.
c.- airframe vibration which might have come from a faulty weight balance.

All control surfaces were identified on site with their weight balance. None carries traces of damage. Note that, in Service Bulletin No. 207 Section I, DOUGLAS states:
"It is emphasized that the DOUGLAS COMPANY has experienced no trouble in the past with the Control surfaces nor have any been reported either to us or to the Civil Aeronautics Administration."
Certain assumptions can not be ruled out:
a.- Pilot incapacitation (natural or accidental: bird through the windshield, explosion of a cylinder, etc., etc.)
b.- Dry tornado.
The weather at the alleged time of the accident was:
- Haze
- Calm air, little cloudy
- Average visibility.
According to the crews who flew over the site of the accident during search the region was know for violent updrafts.
The Territorial Administration Kipushi (30 Km. SW Elisabethville) confirmed that the day of the accident at 15.00 local time a dry tornado removed the roof of a house.
c.- failure autopilot suddenly putting the aircraft into a dangerous position before the pilot could disconnect it.
Several DC.3 airplane accidents in the USA have been attributed to autopilots.
At the airline T.W.A. the Sperry A-3 autopilot was removed from the DC.3 aircraft. Several other companies have done the same.
From this point of view, these are the most characteristic failures:
a. Seizing of the "Air Relay".
b. Seizure of the "Balancing Oil Valve"
c. Operating stop of the "following-up cable":
- Cable detached
- Pulley stuck
- Rupture of the cable return spring.
d.- Failure or wedging of an essential control element or permanent deformation of the airfrane after a local failure
This is an assumption that we can not report, although nothing positive can confirm it.

Rapport relative à l'accident survenu à l'avion C-47A, avec immatriculation OO-CBL à KIMBWE le 31 AOÛT 1948.

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