1934 KLM Douglas DC-2 crash

The airplane became internationally known after winning the handicap classification in the MacRobertson Air Race, where it was the only commercial passenger airliner that participated. The race had a long day-to-day coverage in the Netherlands and the achievement became immensely popular, including the production of merchandise of the aircraft and the crew. This achievement is still regarded as the most important historic event in Dutch aviation. Due to the popularity of the KLM and the impact it had internationally, it was at the time not considered appropriate to publish criticism of the company, its operations or its pilots. ==Uiver airplane==

The Uiver was an American built Douglas DC-2. It was the 18th DC-2 built and it preceded two more orders of (14 and 3 respectively) DC-2 airplanes for KLM. It had construction number 1317 and was registered as PH-AJU. At the time, KLM named their aircraft after a bird with a name starting with the last letter of the registration. This aircraft received the name of “Uiver” (a local name for the stork). The aircraft was delivered on 21 August 1934 after arriving in the Netherlands on 12 September 1934 by ship (s.s. "Statendam"). This Douglas DC-2 had 2 Wright Cyclone SGR 1820-F2 piston engines of 750 hp each. The aircraft had a cruising speed of 290 km/h, a maximum take-off weight of 8.4 tons and a flight range of 1750 km. ==Flight==

The flight was an extra mail flight to Batavia. After the success of winning the Melbourne race and the popularity of the “Uiver” airplane; the KLM had launched a publicity stunt “Your Christmas and New Year's wishes with the Uiver to the East — you will receive an answer within 11 days“. Tens of thousands of letters and cards were received. The intention was that the flight would be flown in a record time, so faster than the December 1933 Christmas flight with the Fokker F.XVIII “Pelikaan”. On board were four crew members, three passengers and 350 kg of mail. After the fourth intermediate stop, the airplane departed at 9.50 pm from Cairo for the route to Baghdad, Iraq. Shortly after midnight, at 00.10 a.m. radio operator Van Zadelhoff asked the RAF base in Rutbah Wells for the position of the airplane. Half an hour later the plane is last heard by the people working at the pumping station H.3 of the Kirkuk–Haifa oil pipeline. ==Search operation==

The location where the plane crashed was unknown. The area where the aircraft could be was in the desert in an area which was “bigger than Germany”. A large search started on 21 December. Twenty-four airplanes of the British Royal Air Force from Baghdad; airplanes of the Iraq Air Force from Amman and also one airplane of the Iraq Petroleum Company were involved in the search. From the Netherlands the “Leeuwerik” airplane went to Iraq to search for the aircraft in case it still was not found by the time it arrived. The Royal Air Force searched in the triangle Ramadi-Haditha-Rutbah, the Iraq Air Force searched between Amman and Rutbah. On 21 December a Royal Air Force pilot of squadron no.14 discovered the burned-out wreck, at 6:30 GWT, 16 kilometres south of Rutbah Wells at a British desert fortress. Nobody had survived the crash and all the seven bodies were found. The bodies were flown to Baghdad by the RAF. ==Mail recovery==

Of the transported Mail, 142 kg of the 350 kg was burned after the explosion of the crash. The mail was given back to the right holders in February 1935. Philip did a doctorate at the London School of Economics in London and went to Baghdad to write a book on how Iraq was created titled “Iraq: A Study in Political Development” and published in 1938. In total 349 of the 5225 items could be delivered in the Dutch East Indies by the post office headquarter in Bandung. The remaining 7.2 kg of mail was sent back to the Netherlands by boat in April 1935. After requesting, 181 other mail items that were still in Iraq were sent to the Netherlands. == Casualties==

Crew members • Wim Beekman (born 15 March 1895 in Brouwershaven) was the captain of the flight. After being in the army he went to the aviation department, where he earned his pilot's license on 8 December 1922. He worked since 14 May 1924 with the KLM. Beekman was a very experienced pilot and one of the oldest at KLM. He had done the flight between Amsterdam and Batavia as captain many times. He had 40 flight hours in the “Uiver”. • Jacobus Thijmen Kort (born 21 August 1886 in Leiden) was a successful businessman. He owned the roof tile factory “Karangpilang” in Surabaya, the Dutch East Indies as was commissioner of newspaper Soerabaijasch Handelsblad. He founded later in the Netherlands the "Indische Buurt" in Oegstgeest. He was married and had 2 children. ==Reactions==

The accident brought great dejection in the Netherlands. At the time when there was still a lot of uncertainty about the crash the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands requested information from the KLM office. After it was announced that nobody survived, Queen Wilhelmina and princess sent both telegrams expressing their condoleances. At the Tweede Kamer the accident was commemorated with a speeches chairman Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck, and minister Kalff on behalf of the government. As a tribute, radio programming (NCRV, VARA) had been stopped for at least one day. Flags were flown at half-mast in the Netherlands. Condolences were received from all international airlines. Transocean and Reuters specially expressed their condolences to Berretty and Walch. News agency Aneta received condolences from Germany, England, the United States, China and the Netherlands and from many foreign news agencies. It received also condolences from vice-president Council of the Indies Jan Willem Meyer Ranneft. Many people went to the office of Aneta, including mr. Peekela, C.A. Schnitzler. Furthermore, condolences were received from the secretary of the finance department Verhoeff, Van der Most of the main prosecutor's office and the resident of Batavia. Furthermore, of almost all newspapers of the Dutch East Indies newspapers, Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij management, Van Cuijk of the Nederlandsch-Indische Escompto Maatschappij and head of the PTT Van Ophuysen. Next to those, many other officials from who condolences were received were published. Due to the death of Professor Eduard Willem Walch, the farewell speech of Cornelis de Langen who worked at the same university was cancelled. Rector Magnificus Prof. Willem Alphonse Mijsberg spoke about Walch and his works. ==Funerals==

At first, all victims were buried at the English cemetery in Baghdad on 23 December 1934. They were however exhumed again, with the exception of Beretty, on 22 January 1936. With the "Drachenfels" they were transported to the Netherlands. The funerals in the Netherlands took place on 1 April 1936. Beekman was reburied at the cemetery in Muiderberg. The other crew members were reburied in a communal grave at the Zorgvlied cemetery in Amsterdam, as often happened after deadly KLM flying accidents. Professor Walch's remains were buried at the General Cemetery in Haarlem. ==Theories==

Variants of a theory that the crash occurred due to Berretty were told in Anatolia, the Dutch East Indies and the Netherlands. Berretty It is said that Dominique Willem Berretty was a Japanese spy. Berretty owned a magazine with a huge circulation where he wrote slander himself. That Berretty was in Japanese service could be argued from the fact he always paid slander fines in the Dutch East Indies in Japanese yen. As Berretty tried to do business with the Germans, it remains unknown if Berrretty worked with the Japanese; with the Germans; with both or with neither. According to newspaper Het Vrije Volk it was “most likely” he worked as a double spy for the political intelligence service in Batavia. Due to his confidentiality obligation, he could not talk about it at the time, and only told his story as late as January 1984. When asked by Reuters, they said that telegrams from the 1930s were destroyed within five years. Reuters said apart from that, that unverified stories were never forwarded to newspapers. Frans van Reijsen was Head of the in 1984. His predecessor had told him that Berretty would be arrested in Baghdad. He had heard from people from Indonesia that Barretty would be a Japanese spy. He stated that no gunshot wounds were found during the autopsy. According to Van Reijsen it's unlikely there was a shooting because if there had been a shooting, that would have been favored by Plesman as the reason for the crash. ==Investigations and cover-up==

Multiple investigative committees, including of the KLM and the Dutch Ministry of Transport travelled to the crash site for investigation. The disaster was investigated by Dr. Hendricus van der Maas, head of the Aircraft department of the RSL (Rijks Studiedienst voor de Luchtvaart, 1919–1937). He arrived at the scene of the accident on 26 December. On 8 January he made his first report to the Luchtvaartdienst (LVD). Subsequent written reports were not published. The “Permanente Ongevallen Commissie” (POC) of the RSL was adjusted on 7 February 1935 and came under the leadership of Vice Admiral jhr. George Lodewijk Schorer. Beekman initially refused to start the flight. He did not trust the plane and was tired. During an earlier test flight to Cairo, he encountered heavy weather on the way back over the Ardennes. The airplane was controlled only with great difficulty by the two experienced pilots: Beekman and Sillevis. The flying characteristics of the DC-2 had previously given rise to research, including into the functioning of the rudder. Eventually Beekman started the flight against his will. Beekman is said to have been under great pressure to complete the flight in record time. It is remarkable that 10 hours before the plane crashed, strangers inquired whether the plane had already crashed. Technical report (Schroder) In April 1935, a special committee, led by vice admiral jhr. George Lodewijk Schorer, made public the technical report. The conclusion was that a multiple factors caused the crash. The bad weather, Beekman's fatigue and the poor flying characteristics of the aircraft all contributed to the crash. No further details were given. According to this report the pilot could not be held responsible for the accident. While he was in Cairo “tired and even a bit dazed“ with doubts if he was “mentally fit enough for the difficult flight”; he couldn't be blamed he was ordered by KLM to make a quick forced flight or would otherwise be fired. The difficult controllability of the aircraft in heavy weather was known by the KLM management. While Beekman was an experienced pilot, he had twice lost control of the aircraft in an earlier flight from Cairo in heavy weather. According to the report, it was expected that such conditions were also to be expected on this flight. The multiple desired adjustments to the aircraft were not made by the KLM due to “time constraints”. Second pilot Van Steenbergen had only made 10 flight hours in this aircraft, according to American regulations, this is insufficient for such a flight. Due to the shortcomings in the preparation and the risks taken, for a flight that had to be completed in record time, it was according to the report, irresponsible to allow passengers on this flight. After the crash, the committee concluded the KLM had destroyed multiple important documents, including Beekman's report on the flight characteristics of the aircraft and the report of the meeting about it; where Beekman's cupboard was first broken open. Next to the KLM the Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management Jacob Kalff is blamed. He had given out a certificate of airworthiness for the aircraft with fewer demands than desired due to the “major interests of KLM” and should not have issued a passenger permit. The six demands requested by the minister in return for giving out the certificate were not implemented by KLM. ==Legacy==

Reference to this crash is made in multiple historical overviews of KLM. ==References==