Hello Info Search,

Although this forum would be an excellent medium to search for that particular crew on that night, I think your chances to find them are very slim. This due to the fact that it occured more than 30 years ago, which would probably mean that those involved have long since retired. Even so, I wish you all the luck, and I'm sorry to hear about your father.

I'm a bit confused, if the plane went down weren't the pilots on it? Or did they survive? I think you have a larger chance of getting an accident investigation report so you can find out more information, than finding the crew of a flight 30 years ago.

Maybe you can post your question on Pprune an international aviation forum.
www.pprune.org

@Fly and Funflying

@Fly and Funflying

The pilots of the Malev plane of course did not survive. But KLM pilots might have seen something as the Malev was already approaching the airport. The plane went down at just 10 km off the coast (where airport was) of Beirut. The plane did not accidently fall down, debris showed that it was shot down (external explosion, not from inside).
There was no investigation to speak of, no back box retreived etc etc. Cause is still "unknown".
Passengers list still "classified", but just last month found out that 37 bodies (out of 60 passengers) were retrieved from sea. No-one knows where the bodies are. International posting revealed only one thread "the lost flight" of Malev 240. Wikipedia also tells the story of the lost flight. But a lot of info is still missing.
I know the chances are slim to find the KLM pilots who are most probably retired. But perhaps someone ever heard someone talk about this "incident". I am also interested in the archives of KLM. I am not getting info through official "normal" website of KLM.
Thanks Funflying, i'll try that site.

Maybe you can try the VNV. Don't know when it was founded, but I think you might have a change there. I'm not a member myself, but perhaps someone else can post a message on their forum.

Thanks Dodo228
I'll try the VNV and if anyone is a member.... pls feel free to post as any info is welcome!

Have you sent an email to KLM, e.g. [email protected] ? They can pass your request to the Human Resources Department (or another department) who might be able to find out the crew on that particular flight. KLM can ask those crew members if they're open for a contact with you.

Reading the nature of your request I cannot imagine that KLM will not give a response on your request.

Hope you will find your info!

@ Dutchie

@ Dutchie

Thanks a lot!
Note, the husband of one of the stewardesses on board did not get a reply though....
But maybe I wil... being Dutch and so forth. Hopefully...

30sep75 HA-LCI Tu-154B 53 Malev w/o
Hungary to fund lifting aircraft wreckage of 1975 Beirut crash linked to Mideast
EUP20050512950037 Budapest MTV 2 in Hungarian 1315 GMT 11 May 05

Hungary to fund lifting aircraft wreckage of 1975 Beirut crash linked to Mideast

The victims of the Beirut aircraft disaster will be exhumed. After 30 years, parliament voted for the plan to bring the bodies of the air disaster's 11 victims home.

It seems that pain and mourning does not go away. Miklos Csapody, parliamentary deputy of the Hungarian Democratic Forum , has given a good example by taking up the issue of the victims' relatives.

On 30 September 1975, almost 30 years ago, 11 Hungarians on board of a Malev flight died, and nothing has happened ever since. They are allegedly laying in the seabed. Many things can be read about what might have happened. The incident happened over Beirut on the day after the opening of the Budapest office of the PLO. The documents also show that Arafat was to travel by this flight, but he travelled by another flight, after all. What information did you get at the time.

We were told that the aircraft had been involved in an accident, a committee travelled to the scene and we should wait for the results of the investigation because we would be informed about it later. No concrete information was given.

Have you asked for a decent burial for your relatives?

It was out of the question.

Could it not be requested?

No, no-one could talk about it.

This is where I wanted to get. You supported the case and managed to secure 100m forints for this purpose.

About 100 million. But what is important in this case is that, as it has emerged, this tragedy which happened 30 years ago has several aspects; three aspects, by today. The first is its political aspect, which was connected to Palestinian-Israeli relations, mainly to the Soviet Union, therefore it had a global political aspect. This was handled by Malev and the political leadership of the time in the dimension of lies, since no-one had the courage to inform the families about the tragedy. The whole matter was handled in a semi-secret manner.

Excuse me, what do you, as a politician think, what was the Hungarian state's interest to hide the fact that the plane was shot down, if it happened because it was assumed that the Palestinian leader was on board? In that case, it was the opposing side which might have shot it down, somewhere from Israel, I reckon.

All sorts of things were said at the time. Obviously, there was a huge Soviet pressure in this case as well.

But if the plane was shot down by the Israelis, then its interest would have been to say that it was an attempt to shoot down our Palestinian brothers.

Yes, but the Hungarian state of the time was an accomplice, because not only ordinary people, not only simple passengers, pilots and aircraft engineers, were on board but it seems that military equipment and ammunition as well, and it was precisely to serve Soviet interests. This is what I did not mention and did not even want to mention in parliament, because this is now a closed matter of the past. This is now a simple human issue of paying tribute, free of party-political considerations.

What can be expected? I think the cost of lifting out an aircraft from the seabed is not just a few pennies.

It is likely to cost several hundred millions. I am glad that parliament, the parliamentary majority, the government did not consider this to be a party-political matter but a matter of paying tribute to the dead, since they earmarked a starting sum for this purpose from the budget. It will probably not be enough, but it is a start.

The families will have something to bury and naturally its political aspects may also come to light from radio communication between the control towers and the aircraft at the time.

Endall

@Brakes released

@Brakes released

Thank you very much for your message! However, although the government of Hungary allocated 400.000 euro for repatriation, the secretary of state of the ministry of transport has decided that no such thing should be done and he has decided that the funds should be given to some of the relatives, namely 10 hungarians who seem to accept 40.000 euro instead. All other relatives were of course not even notified....

Dear Info Search,

I am writing because my Lebanese family has also suffered from the Malev crash in 1975. My husband's parents (father and mother) both died in the crash leaving behind them three young boys. It was the begining of the civil war in Lebanin and no one really investigated the matter. My inlaws were coming back from Paris to Beirut. Other than the fact that you are mentioning in your story, it is interesting to know no one knows exactly where the flight came from and whether it had stoped in Cyprus and why the names of the victims were never released? We always thought since the plane came from Paris, it had one stop which was Budapest to refil and take more passengers on its way to Beirut.

Do you think that there is also a way in investigating the "french connection" and have you tried that? what about the passengers list, where you able to get it? We know that there were about 12 nuns and priests on the plane.

We would like to pursue this further and understand what happened. We have read that there was a memorium for the victims family that took place in Malta in 2006. http://www.ivao.aero/events/day.asp?Id=30/09/2006
Is there an association for the victim's families? Please let us know how we can join you in your search for the truth.

Dear Hassoun,

Thank you for your message and I am sorry to hear about your inlaws.
I am intererested in this particular flight because my father was on board. Unlike the lebanese relatives however, we did not know about the fact that about half of the passengers' bodies were recovered from the sea the next day. I learned about this fact only a few months ago through another relative through the internet.

With respect to the flight, it originated from Budapest, it's home airport. Like your relatives, my father needed to go to Lebanon and as Malev was one of the few very regular companies flying to Beirut, he flew from another airport, in this case Amsterdam, before boarding in Budapest. The plane did not have a stop at Cyprus, but of course had contact with the cypriotic aircontroller as it flew it's airway.

Indeed, the passengers' list is still undisclosed. With respect to the nuns and priests, I only heard about 4 nuns, one of which I knew from my school in Lebanon. Do you have more information on that, such as names or the congregation they were from?

With respect to Malta, I think it was just a kind of event. I have not heard of any Maltese passenger and I don't see anything linking it to the relatives, Hungary or Lebanon for that matter.

In any event, thanks again for your message and I hope to hear from you soon.

Kind regards,
Van der Velde

Dutchie schreef:Have you sent an email to KLM, e.g. [email protected] ? They can pass your request to the Human Resources Department (or another department) who might be able to find out the crew on that particular flight. KLM can ask those crew members if they're open for a contact with you.

Reading the nature of your request I cannot imagine that KLM will not give a response on your request.

Hope you will find your info!

@Dutchie

Thanks again for your link. I sent my query following your mail and within a day received the answer that they did not have any information. I kindly asked them to have a bit closer look at their archives but alas, to no avail.
I will be asking once more though as I would have imagined KLM being a bit more cooperative in such a query. Cross my fingers...

Dear Van Der Veld,

Thank you very much for your reply. I am very sorry to hear about your father. My husband remembers that the list and names of most passengers were published on October 1st or 2nd in the Lebanese daily "L'orient-Le Jour". It is very easy to retrieve from the archives of the daily paper. I don't know the name of the nuns' order.
My husband's family recovered parts of his parents, enough for identification. They also recovered loose items. We would like to communicate more directly with you if possible.
Best regards,

Dear Van Der Veld,

I contacted L'Orient-le jour and they just responded to my inquiry concerning their archives. Unfortunately, they do not have the archives before 1997 online. Someone has to go to Kantari, Lebanon, and look through their archives and get the newspaper of October 1st or 2 1975. I can do that on our next visit to Lebanon. Meanwhile, I will also ry to get the article through the archives of the Library of Congress in DC since they usually have copies of everything. I will keep you posted.

Best,