Eastern Provincial Airways Flight 102
| Eastern Provincial Airways Flight 102 | |
|---|---|
 An identical Janus Airways machine with a comparable paint scheme |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Structural failure due to severe corrosion |
| place | at Musquodoboit , Nova Scotia , Canada
|
| date | March 17, 1965 |
| Fatalities | 8th |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type |
 Handley Page HPR-7 Dart Herald 202
|
| operator |
Eastern Provincial Airways
|
| Mark |
CF-NAF
|
| Departure airport |
Halifax Airport , Nova Scotia , Canada
|
| Destination airport |
JA Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport , Nova Scotia , Canada
|
| Passengers | 5 |
| crew | 3 |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
On March 17, 1965, a serious accident occurred on Eastern Provincial Airways flight 102 (flight number: PV102 , radio call sign: PROVINCIAL 102 ). On that day a Handley Page HPR-7 Dart Herald 202 of Eastern Provincial Airways (CF-NAF) was involved in a domestic flight within the Canadian eastern provinces from Moncton Airport to St. John's International Airport . The machine broke apart in flight, killing all eight people on board. It was the first ever fatal incident involving a Handley Page Herald.
machine
The machine concerned was a Handley Page HPR-7 Dart Herald 202, serial number 160 , which was three years old at the time of the accident. The machine had completed its maiden flight on March 2, 1962. The machine had the aircraft registration CF-NAF . The twin-engine short-range passenger aircraft was equipped with two turboprop engines of the type Rolls-Royce Dart 527 equipped. By the time of the accident, the machine had completed a total of 4,135 operating hours.
In the machine's maintenance history, there was no evidence of structural damage or damage to the engines or the aircraft controls. Only the occurrence of vibrations in the stern area was noted.
Passengers and crew
The flight segment from Halifax Airport to JA Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport had taken five passengers. There was a three-person crew on board, consisting of a flight captain, a first officer and a flight attendant. The 45-year-old flight captain had 20,200 hours of flight experience, 1,000 hours of which he had flown with the Handley Page Dart Herald. The 42-year-old first officer had 11,960 hours of flight experience, and had flown over 1,000 hours with the Handley Page Dart Herald.
Flight plan
Eastern Provinical Airways Flight 102 was scheduled for a flight from Moncton Airport in New Brunswick to St. John's International Airport in Torbay , Newfoundland and Labrador . Seven stops were planned on the way, these should be at Summerside Airport , Prince Edward Island , at Charlottetown Airport , Prince Edward Island, New Glasgow Airport , Nova Scotia , Halifax Airport , Nova Scotia, JA Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport , Nova Scotia, the Deer Lake airport , Newfoundland and Labrador and the airport Gander , Newfoundland and Labrador done. The accident occurred on the fifth leg of the flight.
Weather
The weather conditions were favorable on the day of the accident. The visibility range at Halifax Airport was 20 miles. The temperatures were 26 ° F (about −3 ° C), and there were occasional clouds in the sky at 12,000 feet (about 3,660 meters). The wind was blowing from 30 degrees with 14 miles per hour (about 22.5 km / h). There was no strong wind shear in the region, so at most slight turbulence was to be expected on the flight route.
Flight history
The plane took off from Moncton at 6:35 a.m. local time. The flight was routine, with a 36-minute layover in Halifax, during which the machine was refueled. At 9:10 a.m. the machine took off from runway 33 there for its onward flight to Sydney. The pilots were instructed to make a right turn after take-off and climb to 13,000 feet. At 9:15 a.m., the crew contacted air traffic control one last time and stated their scheduled arrival time for Sydney to be 9:59 a.m.
the accident
When the machine rose from 11,500 to 12,000 feet after flying without incident at Musquodoboit, 26 miles northeast of Halifax Airport , the machine suddenly broke apart in a matter of seconds. A total of 19 witnesses on the ground stated in later interrogations that they had heard an unusual, loud noise and saw how the tail unit and then the cockpit section of a machine flying in an easterly direction broke off before the rubble within 45 to 60 seconds fell to the ground at 9:22 a.m. local time. The wreck fell in a densely forested area. All eight occupants of the machine lost their lives in the crash.
Accident investigation
During the medical examination of the crash victims, traces of carbon monoxide were found, whereupon a thesis was first made that the crew could have become incapacitated in flight. This thesis was later rejected when clinical tests showed that the concentration of carbon monoxide in the blood of the victims was not high enough to induce an incapacity to act. Ultimately, a heating pipe that was hung on the cabin door at Halifax Airport to prevent the cockpit from cooling down while stationary was identified as the likely source of the carbon monoxide.
During the examination of the wreckage it was found that the underside of the hull of the machine had been exposed to progressive corrosion for a long time . In flight, the underside of the fuselage tore along the 32nd stringer , and thus along the center line of the underside of the fuselage, starting approximately from the transition from the cockpit to the cabin area to the rear. The structural failure in flight progressed from front to back. The hull deformed so much that it was finally hit by one of the propellers.
Also referring to vibrations in the rear has been investigated intensively, was especially noted that the left horizontal stabilizer before the vertical stabilizer and the fuselage behind the rear pressure bulkhead had broken off from the machine. It was therefore initially assumed that the structural failure originated from the stern. Since no small wreckage from the stern area were found at the beginning of the rubble field, this thesis was ultimately rejected.
Ultimately, the exact cause and type of corrosion could not be determined.
context
Less than a month later, another Handley Page Herald aircraft accident occurred when an Alia Royal Jordanian Airlines plane crashed near Damascus . In this most serious aircraft accident with this type of aircraft, which resulted in 54 deaths, a structural legend was also determined which, according to all findings, also began in the fuselage between the cockpit and cabin area.
swell
- Accident report Herald, CF-NAF in ICAO Circular 71-AN / 63.
- Accident report Herald, CF-NAF in the Aviation Safety Network
- Crash of a Handley Page HPR.7 Dart Herald 202 in Musquodoboit: 8 killed
Coordinates: 45 ° 5 ′ 0 ″ N , 62 ° 58 ′ 0 ″ W.