Prevented from flying further combat missions for propaganda reasons, at the age of 28 Mölders was appointed Inspector of Fighters. He was inspecting the Luftwaffe units in the Crimea when he was ordered to Berlin to attend the state funeral of Ernst Udet, a Luftwaffe general and World War I flying ace. On the flight to Berlin, the aircraft in which he was traveling as a passenger attempted an emergency landing due to an engine failure. It crashed at Breslau, killing Mölders and two others.