Striking gravestone at Istanbul cemetery marks 1974 plane crash
ISTANBUL
Fifty-one years ago on March 3, a routine flight from Istanbul to London via Paris ended in catastrophe, an accident immortalized by a striking gravestone in Istanbul’s Aşiyan Cemetery.
Shortly after takeoff from Paris, the aircraft suffered a fatal malfunction, plummeting into the Ermenonville Forest near the French capital.
None of the 346 passengers and crew on board survived. Among them was 29-year-old flight attendant Rona Altınay. Today, her memory lingers in a singular, evocative monument within Aşiyan Cemetery in Istanbul, designed in the shape of a plane nose-diving into the earth with her photograph affixed on the stone.
The aircraft, a Mcdonnell Douglas DC-10 named “Ankara” had recently joined the Turkish Airlines fleet. On March 3, 1974, it departed from Atatürk Airport (then known as Yeşilköy Airport) with 167 passengers bound for Paris.
The flight proceeded uneventfully, landing in Paris to disembark 50 passengers before continuing to London.
In the meantime, a strike by British Airways staff had left many travelers stranded at Charles de Gaulle Airport, who boarded the Turkish Airlines flight to reach their destination.
By the time the plane taxied down the runway once more, nearly every seat was occupied.
Just minutes into the flight, the aircraft’s cargo door, improperly latched due to a mechanical defect, tore away midair.
The sudden compression sent shockwaves through the fuselage, causing the cabin floor to collapse and severing critical control cables.
Within moments, the pilots lost command of the aircraft and the plane nosedived, crashing into the dense Ermenonville Forest at an overwhelming speed. The impact left no survivors.
Investigations into the incident revealed a confluence of errors. The DC-10 model, then one of the most sought-after aircraft, had a known design flaw in its cargo door locking mechanism and baggage handlers in Paris had struggled to secure the door properly.
Reports suggested a language barrier contributed to the mishap; the ground crew had misinterpreted English safety instructions, failing to recognize that the lock had not fully engaged.
The accident would go down as one of the deadliest aviation disasters in history, prompting sweeping changes in aircraft safety regulations.
Today, Altınay’s gravestone remains a distinct and unusual landmark in Aşiyan Cemetery, as a quiet acknowledgment of those who perished on the fateful flight.
