Lufthansa Flight 540

Introduction
Lufthansa Flight 540 was a flight from Germany to South Africa with a stop in Kenya. The plane crashed shortly after take-off and is the first fatal accident involving a Boeing 747.

Pilots
The crew consisted of Captain Christian Krack, First Officer Hans-Joachim Schacke and of Flight Engineer Rudolf Hahn. The Flight Engineer was partly blamed for the accident.

The Crash
As the flight began to lift off from Runway 24 at Jomo Kenyatta International, a vibration was heard. Thinking it was a gear imbalance, the Captain retracted the landing gear. But just after he did this, the plane entered a stall. The already low plane began to descend back down, and crashed back down onto the ground, just 1 km from the runway. The grass belly landing wasn't bad enough to completely destroy the plane, but what happened next could. The plane then struck an elevated section of grass, and the left wing exploded. The fire quickly spread to the rest of the plane, and 59 were killed. But how did the first fatal accident involving a Boeing 747 happen?

Investigation Results
It was eventually found to have been caused by the slats not being extended for takeoff. This was because Flight Engineer Hahn had forgotten to extend them, leading to a stall. There was not a take-off warning system for slats, and one was soon added after this accident.

May the 59 who died on this short flight rest in peace.