El Al Flight 402
4X-AKC, the aircraft involved, pictured in 1950
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| Occurrence summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | July 27, 1955 |
| Summary | Shot down |
| Site | North of Petrich, Bulgaria 41°24′N 23°13′E / 41.400°N 23.217°ECoordinates: 41°24′N 23°13′E / 41.400°N 23.217°E |
| Passengers | 51 |
| Crew | 7 |
| Fatalities | 58 (all) |
| Injuries (non-fatal) | 0 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft type | Lockheed L-149 Constellation |
| Operator | El Al |
| Registration | 4X-AKC |
| Flight origin | London Heathrow Airport |
| Stopover | Wien-Schwechat International Airport |
| Destination | Lod Airport |
El Al Flight 402 was an international passenger flight from London to Tel Aviv via Vienna and Istanbul. On July 27, 1955, the flight, operated by a Lockheed Constellation registered as 4X-AKC, strayed into Bulgarian airspace and was shot down by two Bulgarian MiG-15 jet fighters and crashed near Petrich, Bulgaria. All 7 crew and 51 passengers on board the airliner were killed. The crash took place amid highly strained relations between the Eastern Bloc and the West and was the deadliest involving the Constellation at the time.
The Constellation originated its scheduled weekly flight from London, England, and departed Vienna's Wien-Schwechat International Airport (VIE) at 02:53, bound to Tel Aviv's Lod Airport (since renamed to Ben Gurion International Airport) via Istanbul. Why the plane veered off its intended route was never established, with highly conflicting opinions from Israeli and Bulgarian investigators. One possibility is that, using NDB navigation, thunderstorm activity in the area might have upset the navigational equipment so that the crew believed they were over the Skopje radio beacon, and turned to an outbound course of 142 degrees, but this version is not supported by any factual evidence of thunderstorms in the area. As a result, this version for the shooting are disputed by both Bulgarian military and by current historiographers of Bulgarian aviation. It is firmly established only that the El Al flight, flying at FL180 (an altitude of approximately 18,000 feet above mean sea level), strayed off the Amber 10 airway into Bulgarian territory. Bypassing the town of Tran, the El Al plane traveled a total of 200 km (120 mi) over Bulgarian territory at a 120 km (75 mi) distance from the border it crossed, before being shot down.
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Wikipedia