The end of the House of Hesse


On November 16, 1937, a "Junkers 52" with the registration number OO-AUB took off from Frankfurt am Main at 1:45 p.m....



...the Belgian company "Sabena" on their scheduled flight to Croydon near London - with a planned stopover in the Belgian capital Brussels...:



There are eight passengers on board - the entire family of the former Hereditary Grand Duke Georg Donatus of Hesse and by Rhine...



... who is on her way to the wedding of her younger brother Ludwig in London.

The Junkers captain is called Antoine Lambotte...



... is 37 years old and extremely experienced! He is a member of the "Millionaires' Club" because during his 15 years as a pilot he has flown more than a million kilometers without an accident.

With Lambotte in the cockpit are 38-year-old radio operator Maurice Courtois and 32-year-old mechanic Invan Lansmans.

The flight to Brussels proceeds without incident before the crew is confronted with heavy ground fog over the Belgian capital.

Landing is impossible, so the "Sabena" instructs Captain Lambotte instead to land in Oostende on the North Sea coast and refuel for the onward flight to London.

However, when the "Junkers" approached Oostende at around 2:47 p.m. local time, there was a "thick soup" here too!

Visibility is less than 250 meters!

Despite this, Captain Lambotte decides to land and sets course for Oostende's grass airfield, where airport staff are meanwhile marking the spot by firing flares.

500 meters from the runway at a height of almost 20 meters, the "Junkers", which is still flying at a speed of 160 km/h, collides with the high chimney of the Steene brickworks!



The right wing is separated from the fuselage of the machine together with an engine and penetrates the factory roof...:





The Junkers then turns 180 degrees on its own axis, catches fire and only a few seconds later falls 50 meters away, between a row of sheds, in front of the factory...:



The fire quickly spreads over the wreck, which has come to a standstill lying on its back...:





There are no survivors - the House of Hesse is practically wiped out.