Draft:1980 Venlo Northrop NF-5A plane crash

On 1 October 1980 a Northrop NF-5A operated by the Royal Netherlands Air Force crashed on a house in Venlo, the Netherlands. The pilot flew on his own initiative, to the place where his parents lived and crashed after making dangerous maneuvers. The accident was big news and had according to an 2020 article of L1 Limburg a "major impact" on the city.

Flight and crash
On 1 October 1980 the Northrop NF-5A departed at around 9:30 local time from Gilze-Rijen Air Base. The 25 years old pilot was a 2nd lieutenant in the Royal Netherlands Air Force, assigned to the 316 Squadron of Gilze-Rijen Air Base. The flight was a training flight to Nijmegen.The route of the flight would be in the area roughly formed by the triangle: Gilze-Rijen, 's-Hertogenbosch and Nijmegen. However later investigation revealed that the pilot had deliberately deviated from his flight instructions. The pilot flew to Venlo, the city where his parents lived. He flew a few circles above his parental home and made some dangerous maneuvers. The plane hit one of the houses at the Stalbergweg, the plane broke into pieces and crashed at around 9:40 local time into the house of lot 273, north of the Stalbergweg. Debris lay in a radius of 1 kilometer from the accident. The house, the trees around the house and across the street were on fire and burned down.

Victims
The pilot was found dead in the cockpit that was found in a pond 200 metres from the house on the south side of the Stalbergweg. The pilot was the 25-years old M.G.M. Sleegers who was 2nd lieutenant in the Royal Netherlands Air Force, assigned to the 316 Squadron of Gilze-Rijen Air Base. He got his pilot's license the year before in 1979 in Canada. In total he had only made 300 flying hours. In the Netherlands he had made 12 flights, most of them together with another pilot.

A total of six people were injured, three of them had to be hospitalized. T. Bierman, resident of the house Stalbergweg 273, was able to get out of the house with his housekeeper M. van Elten in time after the crash. Bierman was admitted with burns to the St. Joseph hospital in Venlo. A fire fighter had to go to the hospital with 1st degree burns on his neck. The house where the plane crashed into totally burned down. There were a total of nine cases of damage from private individuals and there was damage to property of the municipality of Venlo. The damage settlement was done by the 'Department of Defence'. Others who were injured were a 19-years old cyclist Michiel Boermans, the 58-years old Johan van der Bomen who was fishing and the 13-years old Frank Meers.

Above mentioned number of victims does not include people who have been traumatized for decades.

Aftermath
The Venlo fire brigade, ambulances, and the Venlo Municipal Police went immediately to the crash site. Brigade commander of the Royal Marechaussee Venlo, captain Cees de Bruijn had witnessed the crash, as he was at the shooting range of the military training area 'Groote Heide' in Venlo. De Bruijn would be together with Chief Warden Toon Janssen and the Wardens Henk Tervooren, Gerrit Menning and Johan Garretsen responsible for the investigation.

At around 11:50 am local time the crash site was completely under control of the rescue workers, after the public had been removed from the inner and outer ring of the crash site. Salvage of the remains was not immediately possible because the pilot was completely entangled in wiring. Various wires and cables were part of the ejection seat and it was assumed that the ejection seat had not been activated and so that there was still a risk of an explosion. At 16:50 local, after securing the ejection seat, the body was recovered and seized for autopsy. Because the pilot's body was in poor condition, visual recognition and recognition based on the dental status was not possible. Via the Air Force Staff at the embassy in Ottawa, a report was obtained from his fingerprints, because the pilot had done his flight training in Canada. After the pilot was identified based on his fingerprints, the remains were given on 2 October 1980 at 4pm local time to the relatives. The funeral of the pilot took place on 6 October 1980.

According to Airbase Commander, Colonel B. van der Spek, the pilot was not allowed to fly over a city. Cities are by definition avoided in training flights, and are only in exceptional circumstances allowed, like in bad weather, which was not the case now. The mayor of Venlo Frans Feij stated in a press conference that the pilot's parents didn't know he was coming to fly by.

The debris was examined for technical defects. The radar flight movements that were registered on a computer were also included in the investigation. There was no black box on the plane, because it was not part of the equipment of such a military aircraft. There had been no radio contact with the pilot prior to the accident.

The Ministry of Defense took the responsibility for the disaster.