| Crash site | Kaltenkirchen, Germany |
| Airline | Deutsche Lufthansa |
| Aircraft | Focke Wulf Fw 58 – D-OVXF – Elbe |
| Route | Hamburg/Uetersen – Copenhagen |
| Crew | 2 – 1 survivor |
| Passengers | 0 |
The crash
On 29 January 1940 Deutsche Lufthansa opened a new cargo route between Hamburg and Copenhagen, Denmark. The flight did not fly from the main Hamburg/Fuhlsbüttel airport but used a small military airfield Fliegerhorst Uetersen situated north of Hamburg. There was one daily return-flight and at the beginning the airplane was a Junkers Ju 52. This was later replaced by a Focke Wulf.
On 24 January 1942 the plane took off from Uetersen at 14:35 and 10 minutes later it crashed near Kaltenkirchen. The plane was flying low and touched the ground and caught fire. The plane was not in radio contact with Uetersen during the flight. At 15:15 the radio operator Hans Nowak got in contact with Uetersen and informed them about the crash and the death of the pilot Josef Langheld.
The reason for the crash was that the pilot lost consciousness during the flight.
The mail
The plane carried 20 kg of mail and 238 kg of newspapers. According to the crash report all the mail was destroyed in the crash.
This is not correct as some mail was forwarded from Kaltenkirchen to Copenhagen in late January.
One such cover is known.
A.
Danish explanation letter.
See illustration below.
The text can be translated as follows:
You are hereby notified that a letter addressed to You was received from Kaltenkrichen (Holst) with the following information: “The enclosed covers were burned in a mail plane accident in the vicinity. We ask You to hand out the covers to the receivers and communicate accordingly”.
The rest of the cover is enclosed. Respectfully + manuscript signature
Examples of mail
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Much charred cover (front only) postmarked HAMBURG 22.1.1942 and addressed to Copenhagen. |
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