| Crash site | Malmø/Sturup airport, Sweden |
| Airline | Muk Air |
| Aircraft | Partenavia P.68 – OY-PRY – (chartered from Mob Air) |
| Route | Rønne – Copenhagen/Kastrup |
| Crew | 1 – 0 survivors |
| Passengers | 0 |
The crash
The morning flight with mail to Bornholm was flown by two planes – one from Muk Air and one from Sun Air. It was planned that the Muk Air plane should stay in Rønne and only return in the evening with the mail. The plane, however, was called back to Copenhagen as Muk Air had technical problems with another plane. Due to a misunderstanding no other plane was sent to Rønne. At 19:00 Muk Air called to hear why the mail plane did not show up. Muk Air hastily arranged an agreement with a pilot to take the trip with a chartered plane from Mob Air – a Partenavia P.68. The plane took off from Copenhagen 20:21 and landed in Rønne 20:55. Here the pilot with the help from postal workers loaded the plane with 512 kg mail, which was approximately 240 kg more than the authorized weight limit. The plane took off at 21:10 in really bad weather. At 21:38 the pilot asked for permission to land at Malmö/Sturup airport in Sweden as he had great problems with icing. During the approach the plane lost altitude and collided with a tree and crashed in a dense forest area at 21:50. The totally burnt out wreck was first found 23:55 four km north of the airport. The cause of the crash was icing of an overloaded plane with defect deicing system on the right propeller.
The mail
As mentioned the plane carried 512 kg mail, and the first reports stated that all mail from Bornholm had gone up in flames. An undamaged mail bag that had fallen out of the plane was quickly found. The first report from Rønne Post Office stated that 600 kg. mail had been lost – ordinary letters, about 10 air parcels, 3 value letters from Rønne and recommended and express letters. Furthermore all money orders and postal giro payments from 4.3. were lost. Later it was reported that the mail from the town Svaneke was not on the plane as it had arrived in Rønne to late. On 7.3. the Post Office reported that part of the mail from 4.3 had reached the recipients – including some of the postal giro payments. It seems as if not only the Svaneke mail arrived too late in Rønne that evening.
As mentioned one mail bag was found. It contained small packages to Sweden, Europe and Australia, about 10 letters from Rønne to foreign countries as well as some newspapers. This bag was released by the Swedish authorities on 6.3. and the mail was probably forwarded via Copenhagen. Some covers were later found in the burnt-out wreck. These were returned to Rønne Post Office. From here the items were returned to the sender with a special label explaining the reason.
A.
Danish label.
Size: ?
Text translation:
This envelope contains charred mail items sent from Rønne 4.3.1986 with crashed mail plane. P&T very much regret the inconvenience caused by the accident. Rønne Postoffice, 3700 Rønne
Examples of mail
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Much charred cover with metermark RØNNE 04.3.86 addressed to Herlev. The cover was put in a postal plastic bag type J 7 (3-76) and then returned to the sender in a large size envelope with the special label type A. |
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