The accident occurred as the aircraft was attempting to land at Amsterdam's airport in poor weather.

The civil-use converted C-47 Skytrain was on a scheduled flight from London, England to Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

[1] The crew was cleared to land the aircraft at Schiphol Airport in poor weather.

On the third approach to land the aircraft made a sudden turn to the left, apparently trying to line up with the runway.

[1] Eight days earlier another KLM DC-3 operating on the same route in the opposite direction, crashed on approach to London's Croydon Airport in poor weather.