Danish Air Lines

Danish Air Lines
Det Danske Luftfartselskab

IATA ICAO Call sign DD[1] DDL[1] —
Founded	October 29, 1918 (1918-10-29)
Commenced operations	August 7, 1920 (1920-08-07)
Ceased operations	1951 (1951) (merged with DNL and SILA to form SAS)

Det Danske Luftfartselskab A/S or DDL, trading in English as Danish Air Lines, was

(SAS) in 1951. DDL was established on 29 October 1918, but started its first scheduled route on 7 August 1920.

In 1920, the first airplane, a

.

In 1921 another F.F.49c plane from D.L.R. was acquired as a replacement for the first, with the previous German navy registration 3078. For unknown reasons this airplane used the same Danish registration T-DABA.

In the early 1920s, the airline relied on four chartered Fokker-Grulich F.III aircraft,^[2] but also Dornier Komet,

In 1926 the first of a total of four Farman F.121 Jabiru 4-engined commercial airliners, seating nine passengers, were acquired.^[4] It was registered as T-DOXB, and was used on the Copenhagen to Amsterdam line. Amsterdam was a hub with connections to London and Paris. The aircraft were withdrawn from use in 1928 and 1929, and broken up by 1931.

In the late 1920s, Fokker F.VII single-engined airliners replaced the somewhat problematic and expensive to operate Farmans.^[3][5]

In 1933, the airline got the first of two 16 passenger Fokker F.XII airliners. They were built under license by Orlogsværftet. Both aircraft were scrapped by 1946.^[6][7]

In 1938, two

in 1946. In 1946, the airline started intercontinental traffic in cooperation with Det Norske Luftfartselskap and Svensk Interkontinental Lufttrafik in an SAS Agreement. On October 1, 1950 representatives from the three airlines signed a consortium agreement where they appointed SAS to run the airline operations. DDL thus changed status from being an active airline into becoming a holding company for the Danish interests within SAS.

• On 2 May 1933, Fokker F.VIIa OY-DAC crashed in fog while approaching Hannover, killing the pilot; the aircraft was operating a cargo (mail) flight.
• On 17 December 1945, Fokker F.XII OY-DIG Merkur was written off after crashing at Kastrup Airport.^[9]
• On 30 January 1946, Boeing B-17G OY-DFE Trym Viking ran off the runway and struck RAF Dakota KG427 while landing at Kastrup Airport; there were no casualties, but both aircraft were written off.
• On 4 September 1946, Focke-Wulf Fw 200A-05 Condor OY-DEM Jutlandia was written off following a crosswind landing at Northolt Airport.^[10]
• On 17 February 1947,
  Douglas C-47A OY-AEB Rane Viking force-landed on the ice off Malmö due to fuel exhaustion. While approaching Copenhagen the crew encountered fog and poor visibility and diverted to Malmö, but the weather there was also poor. The crew decided to return to Copenhagen but the aircraft ran out of fuel and force-landed on the ice and burned out.^[11]
• On 29 December 1947, Vickers Viking 1B OY-DLI Torulf Viking lost control, stalled and crashed in shallow water while on approach to Kastrup Airport; all 24 on board survived, but the aircraft was written off.^[12]
• On 12 February 1948,
  Douglas C-53 OY-DCI Sejr Viking crashed in a field at Ulrichstein, Germany while on approach to Frankfurt following engine failure, killing 12 of 21 on board.^[13]
• On 8 February 1949, Vickers Viking 1B OY-DLU Torlak Viking crashed in the sea off Barsebäck, Sweden, killing all 27 on board; the wreckage was found a month later in 23 m (75 ft) of water. The accident remains the second deadliest in Sweden, behind
  Linjeflyg Flight 277.^[14]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Det Danske Luftfartselskab.

• Early DDL time tables
• Early DDL history re the F.F.49c
• DDL accident record Archived 2016-08-11 at the Wayback Machine