March 28 1933
Wonder if this was the first case of aerial sabotage, or due to the transportation of dangerous goods.. .<a href="http://www.planecrashinfo.com/1933/1933-2.htm" target="_blank">http://www.planecrashinfo.com/1933/1933-2.htm</a>. .. .The first documented case of using an onboard explosive device to bring down an aircraft was, I suppose, the Canadian Pacific DC-3 in September of 1949.. .I have a book, "This Day in History," written by a retired police reporter from Toronto. His information on the accident is somewhat sketchy, but he seems to think a strong case of aerial sabotage could be made in this 1933 Imperial Airways crash.. .It seems the prime suspect was one Albert Voss, a British dentist of German ..ahem.. extraction, whom the police suspected of smuggling. He had boarded the aircraft in Brussels with another man, a known dealer in stolen goods. Just before the aircraft crossed the coast, an observer saw a puff of smoke near the tail, and 'something big' fall out, after which the aircraft crashed. The 'something big' was Voss' body, which was found about a mile from the crash site.. .According to the police, the only plausible reason for the onboard explosion, other than sabotage, was that Voss may have been carrying a highly volatile chemical used at that time in the manufacture of dentures. He was, after all, a dentist.