1924 KLM Fokker F.III disappearance

KLM became on 7 October 1919 one of the first commercial airline companies. KLM had strict safety measures and a strict policy for the selection of pilots. The KLM passed 2734 times the English Channel without problems between Rotterdam and Croydon and furthermore 3000 times between Belgium and the United Kingdom and 7000 times between Croydon and Paris. This accident was the first main accident of the company.[5]

On 24 April 1924 the Fokker F.III H-NABS was a KLM-operated international passenger flight from Croydon Airport, United Kingdom to Waalhaven, the Netherlands. There were three people on board, pilot Pijl and two passengers. The plane departed at 10:43 from Croydon. Due to fog it made a stopover at Lympne Airport. The plane departed from Lympne Airport at 13:34. As this type of airplane didn’t have radio communication, H Nieuwenhuis, who was in charge at Waalhaven airport noted that something had happened after the plane didn’t arrive at the correct time.[5]

• The pilot was Adriaan Pieter Johannes Pijl (born 22 November 1895 in Amersfoort). As a militairy aviator he had flown 750 hours before he started working at KLM on 1 April 1922. As KLM pilot he had made another 1220 flight hours. He had already flown 215 times over the English Channel.[5] He was described as a very good, calm pilot with a lot of aviation knowledge.[6]
• Passenger W. J. van Hien. He was the son of W. H. J. van Hien, who worked as acting director at the time of Dutch state taxes in Amsterdam. He was married and lived in Folkestone (and not in Amsterdam indicated by some sources[6]). He was en route to Amsterdam for businesses.[1]
• Passenger C. Modderman (around 40-years old). He was engineer, working on architecture and lived in Amersfoort. He went multiple time to London for business and it wasn’t his first time he did it by airplane. He originally planned to return after this business trip by boat. He was married and had one child.[7]

After H. Nieuwenhuis had notice something had happened, all available possibilities were used by the KLM to find the plane in the days after the disappearance.[5] All aviation centers along the entire Belgian coast; the north of France and south east coast of the United Kingdom were contacted over the radio. Telephone services and telegraph services were used in attempt to gain more information about the plane. Head of the radio service J. Strijkers worked all evening and night to gather information.[5][8] English Channel patrol boats, lightships and coastguards were asked to look out for the airplane.[5]

During the night an organization was formed to conduct the search operation. After sunrise three Dutch seaplanes of the Netherlands Naval Aviation Service stationed at De Kooy Airfield, a Dutch torpedo boat, three seaplanes of the Royal Air Force and KLM airplanes N-NABJ and H-NABX searched the English Channel and the Dutch coast.[1] Nieuwenhuis searched together with a photographer using the plane that was normally used for making photographs. Several sandbanks had run dry due to low water, but the aircraft, or parts of it, were not found.[5] In the afternoon also French aircraft also searched along the French coast. Four airplanes (F-ADBI, F-GEAB, F-AECU en F-AEFC) on a scheduled flight have also searched the flight path accurately. All ships in the Channel were signaled to look out for the plane.[5][9]

The next day seaplanes of the Dutch Royal Air Force went out again to search for the plane Also Dutch seaplanes stationed in Veere searched but without a sign of the plane. At the end of the search that day all hope was given up that the aircraft would be found.[5]

On 26 April a telegram was received that a Dutch plane was found at a sandbank of Goodwin and a British plane saw oil in that area.[7] However, the message turned out to be incorrect.[10] The KLM director Plesman was publicly praised by the media for the extensive search. Also the works of H. Nieuwenhuis and J. Strijkers was praised.[5] [9]

The accident sparked the discussion if air traffic is safe. Since KLM had never had such an accident, it was feared that it would set back air transport in general.[5]

The investigative committee stated, as the only possible explanation, that the pilot must have hit the water flying at full speed under the fog. This may be confirmed by a witness who saw the plane coming over at Sandgate, where the visibility was good, but due to the fog over the sea the horizon wasn't visible.[9]

According to experts, the plane wouldn't have crashed if the plane had a radio communication system on board, as it could have been used to fly above the fog. After the accident, all KLM airplanes got a radio communication system. Having a radio communication system on board was made compulsory from 1 October 1924 after the internal aviation conference.[5]