Princess Johanna Marina Eleoore of Hesse was orphaned at the age of fourteen months, when her family was killed in a plane crash, when the plane they were in hit what?
Princess Johanna of Hesse and by Rhine Princess Johanna Marina Eleonore of Hesse and by Rhine (Johanna Marina Eleonore Prinzessin und Landgräfin von Hessen; 20 September 1936 – 14 June 1939) was the third child and only daughter of Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse, and Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark. She was orphaned at the age of fourteen months when her parents, older brothers Ludwig and Alexander and paternal grandmother Eleonore were killed in a plane crash on their way to a family wedding in London. The remains of her unnamed stillborn baby brother were also found among the wreckage.
Lufthansa Flight 540 Lufthansa Flight 540 was a scheduled commercial flight for Lufthansa operated with a Boeing 747-100, carrying 157 people (140 passengers and 17 crew members). The flight was operating the final segment of its Frankfurt–Nairobi–Johannesburg route. On 20 November 1974 it crashed and caught fire shortly past the runway on takeoff. This was the first fatal accident and third hull loss of a Boeing 747. This was also the third fatal accident involving a wide-body aircraft, after Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 in 1972 and the crash of Turkish Airlines Flight 981 earlier in 1974. To date, it is also the deadliest plane crash to occur on Kenyan soil.