On 19 December 1934 the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines operated Douglas DC-2-115A Uiver (registration PH-AJU) was an extra scheduled international Christmas mail-and-passenger flight from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Batavia in the Netherlands East Indies with eight intermediate stops.

The report about the responsibility was not made public at the time but was obtained by newspaper Het Vrije Volk about fifty years later.

Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management Jacob Kalff was also blamed, for giving out a certificate of airworthiness for the aircraft with fewer demands than desired.

Given the unmade adjustments to the aircraft and known dangers, it was also deemed irresponsible by the report to have allowed passengers on this flight.

The race has a long day-to-day coverage in the Netherlands and the achievement became immense popular, including with merchandise of aircraft and the pilots.

[3] Due to the popularity of the KLM and the impact it had internationally, it was at the time not considered appropriate to publish criticism of the company, its operations or its pilots.

The aircraft had a cruising speed of 290 km/h, a maximum take-off weight of 8.4 tons and a flight range of 1750 km.

[5] On 19 December 1934 the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines operated Douglas DC-2-115A Uiver (registration PH-AJU) was an extra scheduled international Christmas mail-and-passenger flight from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Batavia in the Netherlands East Indies which intermediate stops at Marseille, France; Rome, Italy; Athens and Cairo, Greece and Baghdad, Iraq, Karachi in Pakistan Yangon in Myanmar and Singapore.

After the fourth intermediate stop, the airplane departed at 9.50 pm from Cairo for the route to Baghdad, Iraq.

Shortly after midnight, at 00.10 a.m. radio operator Van Zadelhoff asked the RAF base in Rutbah Wells for the position of the airplane.

Half an hour later the plane is last heard by the people working at the pumping station H.3 of the Kirkuk–Haifa oil pipeline.

[10] On 21 December a Royal Air Force pilot of squadron no.14 discovered the burned-out wreck,[10] at 6:30 GWT, 16 kilometres south of Rutbah Wells at a British desert fortress.

[14] In total 349 of the 5225 items could be delivered in the Dutch East Indies by the post office headquarter in Bandung.

At the time when there was still a lot of uncertainty about the crash the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands requested information from the KLM office.

[22] After it was announced that the plane had been found without survivors people came en masse to the KLM office to express their condolences, including minister Kalff.

[23] At the Tweede Kamer the accident was commemorated with a speeches chairman Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck, and minister Kalff on behalf of the government.

Many people went to the office of Aneta, including mr. Peekela, governor in the Dutch East Indies [nl] C.A.

Furthermore condoleances were received from the secretary of the finance department Verhoeff, Van der Most of the main prosecutor's office and the resident of Batavia.

[29] Due to the death of Professor Eduard Willem Walch, the farewell speech of Cornelis de Langen who worked at the same university was cancelled.

The other crew members were reburied in a communal grave at the Zorgvlied cemetery in Amsterdam, as often happened after deadly KLM flying accidents.

[2] Variants of a theory that the crash occurred due to Berretty were told in Anatolia, the Dutch East Indies and the Netherlands.

According to newspaper Het Vrije Volk it was “most likely” he worked as a double spy for the political intelligence service in Batavia.

He would have told pilot Beekman he was a Japanese spy, who was chased by the English police, because he had top secret documents with him.

The disaster was investigated by Dr. Hendricus van der Maas [nl], head of the Aircraft department of the RSL (Rijks Studiedienst voor de Luchtvaart, 1919-1937).

The “Permanente Ongevallen Commissie” (POC) of the RSL was adjusted on 7 February 1935 and came under the leadership of Vice Admiral jhr.

[2] The first published findings were that the airplane plane crashed at full speed with its landing gear retracted and with running engines.

Almost fifty years after the crash, in January 1984, Dutch newspaper Het Vrije Volk obtained a copy of the report and published it.

Given the unmade adjustements and the known dangers, KLM took too many risks in undertaking this flight and it was irresponsible to allow passengers on it.

While Beekman was an experienced pilot, he had twice lost control of the aircraft in an earlier flight from Cairo in heavy weather.

He had given out a certificate of airworthiness for the aircraft with fewer demands than desired due to the “major interests of KLM” and should not have issued a passenger permit.