Accident Douglas C-47A-35-DL (DC-3) OH-LCA,

ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 332999

Date:	Friday 8 November 1963
Time:	16:59
Type:	Douglas C-47A-35-DL (DC-3)
Owner/operator:	Aero OY
Registration:	OH-LCA
MSN:	9799
Year of manufacture:	1943
Total airframe hrs:	30672 hours
Engine model:	Pratt & Whitney R-1830-92
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 22 / Occupants: 25
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	1,5 km N of Mariehamn Airport (MHQ) - Finland
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Passenger - Scheduled
Departure airport:	Turku Airport (TKU/EFTU)
Destination airport:	Mariehamn Airport (MHQ/EFMA)
Investigating agency:	CoI Finland
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
Flight 217 operated on a Helsinki-Turku-Mariehamn flight and left Turku (TKU) at 16:20 GMT. The last leg of the flight was carried out at an altitude of 2000 feet. At 16:57 the crew reported over the MAR NDB on the inbound track to runway 20. During the approach the aircraft struck trees in a nearly horizontal attitude 1470 m before the threshold of the runway. The plane flipped over and caught fire.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "The Board considered that the ultimate cause of the accident was the pilot's misconception of his altitude. It was impossible to determine whether this was due to a wrong indication of the altimeter or human error. The defect, found in the pilot-in-command's altimeter, was regarded however as sufficient to have brought a wrong indication of the altitude which the pilot could not foresee. The cause of the accident was therefore established as follows: As a result of a wrong indication of the aircraft's pilot's altimeter during an instrument approach carried out in weather conditions worse than the weather approved for runway 20 at Mariehamn, the aircraft came below the safe flying altitude and hit trees on the approach line."

Accident investigation: