OH-LCA  Douglas DC-3                           (c/n 9799)

                                    

                                        Finnish Air Lines (Aero O/Y) was founded as far back as 1923.  By 1924 a route was being flown
                                        from Helsinki to Tallinn, Estonia using Junkers F.13 float planes.   After WW II the company equip-
                                        ped with 8 war surplus C-47s.  The first of these, OH-LCA is seen above over Helsinki.  This shot
                                        was probably taken in the early 1950s since the registration had been moved to the tail,  in keeping
                                        with the standard for that day and age.  OH-LCA was the former C-47A-35-DL  42-23937 and was
                                        acquired by Aero O/Y in 1946.   On 8 November 1963 the aircraft was working Flight 217, a local
                                        Helsinki-Turku-Mariehamn schedule which left Turku 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 Mariehamn NDB on the
                                         inbound track to runway 20.   During the approach the aircraft struck trees in a more or less horizontal
                                         attitude some 1470m before the threshold of the runway, but unfortunately flipped over and caught fire,
                                         killing 22 of the 24 souls on board.  The probable cause of the accident was given as a faulty altimeter,
                                         although clearly conditions were below minimums for that airport at that time.