This Biak Monument Commemorates the Victims of the 1957 KLM Flight 844 Crash

RRI.CO.ID, Biak – A monument on Biak Island, Biak Numfor Regency, Papua, commemorates a plane crash that claimed the lives of many Dutch nationals. Only ten people survived the incident.

KLM Flight 844 was an international flight in the 1950s that operated between Mokmer Airport in Biak (now Frans Kaisiepo International Airport) and Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, the Philippines. At the time, Biak was still under Dutch colonial rule as part of Dutch New Guinea, even though Indonesia had declared independence in 1945 and the Dutch East Indies had ceased to exist in 1949.

Operated by the Dutch airline KLM, the flight used a Lockheed L-1049E Super Constellation with the registration number PH-LKT and the nickname “Neutron.” The aircraft entered service in 1953.

At 3:32 a.m. on July 16, 1957, KLM Flight 844 took off from Mokmer Airport. Since the aircraft departed eastward while Manila was located to the northwest, it needed to turn around after takeoff.

Tragically, the plane instead lost altitude and crashed into the sea just four minutes after takeoff. It was reportedly destroyed on impact and sank in waters approximately 250 meters deep.

Of the 59 registered passengers and nine crew members, 58 people died. Ten passengers were rescued with the help of the Royal Netherlands Navy and locals.

Custodian of the historical records and caretaker of the KLM Flight 844 monument, Isak Simbiak, said the historic site was established to commemorate the good deeds of their forebears. As Yolentha Rumngevur of RRI Biak reports, Isak recounted how, despite the limited resources available at the time, local residents paddled their boats to rescue the passengers and crew of the aircraft.

To commemorate the tragedy, some of the ten survivors took the initiative to build a monument near the crash site. The monument, located east of Biak town center, was inaugurated in 2012.

The monument consists of a curved wall topped with a replica of the PH-LKT aircraft, with an illustration of the same aircraft appearing on the plaque. In addition to the aircraft illustration, the plaque features information about the monument and the names of those who died in the crash.