THIRTY-TWO PEOPLE KILLED

Chronicle (Levin), 24 June 1949, Page 5

THIRTY-TWO PEOPLE KILLED

Airliner Bursts Into F lames And Plunges In Sea

Received Friday, XI a.m.

. ROME, June 23. At least 32 people died 'when a K.L.M. Constellation homeward bound from Batavia, burst into flames in the air above Bari today and plunged into the sea.

"It was all over in a few seeonds," said eye-witness "One moment we were watching the plane sailing serenely across the sky, glinting in the sunshine. Suddenly it was in trouble. One rudder fell off. - The plane somersaulted twiee and dropped in the sea," Flames and smoke pouring from the stricken aircraft merged into sizzling steam as it sank into 90 feet of water a mile and a quarter from Ban Cataldo Lighthouse. Holiday crowds- thronging Bari's Waterfront and harbour steps watched in sfience as rescue boats sped to the spot and brought ashore boatloads of burned and mangled bodies. Divers went down to recover others which had sunk

with the plane. A Bari port official said that 24 bodies had been recovered. Many were badlv burned. Tliese included 16 men, five women and fchree children. The bodies were laid in rows in emergency mortuaries. Most of them were unreeognisable, but one, it was established, was that of the former Britjsh Consul in the Netherlands East Indies, whose name- was given as Dukesu It is reported from The Hague that Hans Plesman, who was a son of K.L.M.'s director, Dr. Albert Plesman, was a member of the crew. K.L.M. announced that there wrre no survivors. The plane left Batavia on June 12 for Amsterdam and took off from Athens this mbrning.