Airspeed Ambassador aircraft accident at London Heathrow Airport

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Airspeed Ambassador aircraft accident at London Heathrow Airport
Airspeed AS 57 Ambassador 2 G-AMAD, BKS Air Transport, Southend, UK, Oct 1966 (9184456733) .jpg

The airspeed ambassador involved in the accident
Accident summary
Accident type Collision with objects due to mechanical failure on approach
place London Heathrow Airport , England , UKUnited KingdomUnited Kingdom 
date 3rd July 1968
Fatalities 6th
Injured 2
1. Aircraft
Aircraft type United KingdomUnited Kingdom Airspeed Ambassador
operator United KingdomUnited Kingdom BKS Air Transport
Mark United KingdomUnited Kingdom G-AMAD
Departure airport Deauville Airport , France
FranceFrance 
Destination airport London Heathrow Airport , England , UKUnited KingdomUnited Kingdom 
Passengers 0
crew 8th
Survivors 2
2. Aircraft
Aircraft type United KingdomUnited Kingdom Hawker Siddeley HS.121 Trident 1C
operator United KingdomUnited Kingdom British European Airways
Mark United KingdomUnited Kingdom G-ARPT
Survivors -
3. Aircraft
Aircraft type United KingdomUnited Kingdom Hawker Siddeley HS.121 Trident 1C
operator United KingdomUnited Kingdom British European Airways
Mark United KingdomUnited Kingdom G-ARPI
Survivors -
Lists of aviation accidents

The accident involving an Airspeed Ambassador at London Heathrow Airport occurred on July 3, 1968. On this day, an Airspeed Ambassador of BKS Air Transport , which was being used to transport animals from Deauville to London , collided with two Hawker Siddeley HS due to a mechanical failure .121 Trident 1C and a Vickers 806 Viscount from British European Airways . In the incident, two of the four machines involved were irreparably destroyed and six of the eight occupants of the Ambassador were killed.

First airplane

machine

The affected machine was a British-made Airspeed Ambassador . The machine with the serial number 5211 was finally assembled in 1950. After its first flight on January 12, 1951, British European Airways (BEA) took over the machine on March 20, 1952, registered it with the aircraft registration G-AMAD and gave it the name Sir Francis Drake . On July 23, 1957, BKS Air Transport bought the machine from BEA and converted it into a horse transporter. The twin-engine medium - haul aircraft was equipped with two air-cooled 18-cylinder radial engines of the Bristol Centaurus 661 type, each with an output of 2625 hp (1929 kW).

Inmates and cargo

A three-person cockpit crew was on board the machine, consisting of a flight captain, a first officer and a flight engineer. There were also five stable lads who were entrusted with the care and maintenance of the horses being transported. The cargo consisted of eight racehorses carried for the businessman William Hill.

Second plane

A Hawker Siddeley HS.121 Trident 1C of British European Airways, identical in construction to the damaged G-ARPI and G-ARPT
A Vickers 806 Viscount from British European Airways, identical in construction to the damaged G-APKF machine

The second aircraft was a Hawker Siddeley HS.121 Trident 1C . The aircraft had the factory number 2109 . The machine completed its maiden flight on April 14, 1964 and was registered with the manufacturer with the aircraft registration G-ARPI . British European Airways (BEA) took over the machine on May 2, 1964. The three- engine medium - range narrow-body aircraft - the Hawker Siddeley Trident was the world's first three-engine passenger aircraft at the time - was equipped with three Rolls-Royce Spey 505-5F engines.

At the time of the accident, the machine was parked on the apron at Heathrow Airport, there were no people on board.

Third plane

The third aircraft was also a Hawker Siddeley HS.121 Trident 1C. The aircraft had the factory number 2121 . The machine was initially intended with the aircraft registration G-ARPW for a customer who did not accept the machine. The machine was then registered with the manufacturer with the aircraft registration G-ARPT and completed its maiden flight on June 30, 1965. On July 9, 1965, British European Airways (BEA) finally took over the aircraft. The three-engine, medium-haul, narrow-body aircraft was equipped with three Rolls-Royce Spey 505-5F engines.

The machine was also parked on the apron at Heathrow Airport at the time of the accident and there were no people on board either.

Fourth plane

The fourth aircraft was a Vickers 806 Viscount. The four-engine medium-range aircraft with the serial number 396 was equipped with four turboprop engines of the type Rolls-Royce Dart 520 equipped. After its final assembly, the machine took off on its maiden flight from Weybridge , Surrey , England on July 3, 1958 , after it had already been registered with British European Airways on January 28 of the same year with the aircraft registration G-APKF . The delivery followed on July 12, 1958, the machine was given the baptismal name RMA Michael Faraday , whereby the name disappeared again with the application of a new painting in March 1959. On September 3, 1960, an incident occurred during the take-off run from London Heathrow Airport to Milan Linate Airport (flight BE190) when the fire warning for engine no. 3 sounded. The master activated the engine extinguishing system, shut down the engine and aborted the take-off. After returning to the terminal, it turned out that the fire warning had been caused by a chafing point in the wiring of the fire alarm system. In July 1965 the machine was sighted in Leeds , at that time it was operated for BKS Air Transport.

At the time of the accident, this machine was also parked on the apron at Heathrow Airport with no people on board.

the accident

After an inconspicuous flight from Deauville , France , the left wing lowered on the final approach to runway 28R of Heathrow Airport, causing the left wing tip and immediately afterwards the left main landing gear to brush the green area to the left of the runway. The pilots tried to get the machine back under control and initiate a go - around by increasing the thrust, but this only increased the roll angle of the machine. The pilots finally lost control of the Ambassador, which swerved to the left from the runway, flew over the apron at a low altitude and shaved off the tail sections of two parked Hawker Siddeley HS.121 Trident aircraft of British European Airways before it was burning and lying on its back went down and slid into a terminal building. The parked Vickers Viscount was also slightly damaged in the incident.

Victims, Survivors, and Damage

Six of the eight inmates and all eight horses were killed, only two stable boys survived. Another 29 people on the ground were slightly injured. The Airspeed Ambassador was completely destroyed and had to be written off, as was the Trident G-ARPT , whose entire tail section, consisting of the rear cabin section, the tail unit and the rear engine, had been sheared off. Only on the Trident G-ARPI was the considerable damage to property in the form of a shaved horizontal stabilizer and a damaged third engine still repairable.

Cause of accident

The accident was investigated by the Department for Transport's Accident Investigation Board . The investigators determined that the cause of the accident was a material failure on the mechanical shaft for the port-side buoyancy aids . The breaking of the wave made the port side buoyancy aid mechanism ineffective. This led to an asymmetrical lift and consequently to a port roll movement, which ended in loss of control on the final approach.

After the accident

The two machines that could be repaired after the accident were later involved in fatal incidents:

  • The repaired Hawker Siddeley HS.121 Trident G-ARPI was destroyed on June 18, 1972 on British European Airways Flight 548 , in which all 118 occupants of the machine died.
  • The repaired Vickers Viscount G-APKF was sold to Laos in September 1969 and after the accident was initially in service with the registration XW-TDN for Lao Air Lines , later Lane Xang Airlines and finally for Royal Air Lao . At the last operator, the machine was destroyed in a takeoff accident at Phnom Penh Airport in March 1975, killing all four occupants. One factor in the accident was that the person in charge who was piloting the machine at the time of the accident was not a qualified pilot.

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Individual evidence

  1. ^ HA Taylor: Airspeed's elegant Elizabethan . In: AIR Enthusiast Twenty-three, December 1983 – March 1984, p. 45
  2. ↑ Company history Airspeed AS.57 Ambassador, G-AMAD , planelogger.com
  3. ^ Operating history of Airspeed AS.57 Ambassador, G-AMAD , rzjets.net
  4. ↑ Company history Trident 1C, G-ARPI , planelogger.com
  5. ↑ a b Operating history of the two Tridents 1C, G-ARPI and G-ARPT , rzjets.net
  6. ↑ Company history Trident 1C, G-ARPT , planelogger.com
  7. ↑ a b Viscount c / n 396 , Vickers Viscount Network
  8. ^ Accident report Trident 1C, G-ARPI, June 18, 1972 , Aviation Safety Network

Coordinates: 51 ° 28 ′ 24 ″  N , 0 ° 27 ′ 0 ″  W.