Air accident involving a Vickers Viking of Central African Airways in 1953

Air accident involving a Vickers Viking of Central African Airways in 1953
	An identical Vickers Viking from Central African Airways
Accident summary
Accident type	Structural failure
place	at Kwamsisi, Tanga , Tanganyika;
date	March 29, 1953
Fatalities	13
Survivors	0
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Vickers 616 Viking 1B
operator	Central African Airways
Mark	VP-YEY
Surname	Shanghani
Departure airport	Nairobi-Embakasi , British East Africa;
Destination airport	Dar es Salaam , Tanganyika;
Passengers	8th
crew	5
	Lists of aviation accidents

On March 29, 1953, a Vickers Viking aircraft accident occurred on Central African Airways . The Vickers 616 Viking 1B of Central African Airways was on a scheduled flight from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam and broke above the Tanga region in northern Tanganyika in the air apart. All 13 occupants were killed in the accident.

Airplane and occupants

The Vickers 616 Viking 1B, which was six years and three months old at the time of the accident, was finally assembled in early 1947 with the serial number 168 and made its maiden flight on January 7, 1947. She was certified by Central African Airways with the aircraft registration VP-YEY , delivered on January 9, 1947 and christened Shanghani . The twin-engine short - haul aircraft was equipped with two air-cooled 14-cylinder radial engines of the Bristol Hercules 634 type, each with an output of 1242 kW (1690 hp).

On the flight on March 29, 1953, there were eight passengers on board the machine as well as the five-person crew, consisting of a flight captain, a first officer, a flight engineer and two flight attendants.

Flight route

According to a majority of sources, the machine was on a scheduled flight from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam , the first leg of a scheduled connection that led from Nairobi via Dar es Salaam and Blantyre to Salisbury . The Viking probably broke apart as a result of a strong gust while cruising over the Tanga region and hit near the village of Kwamsisi. All 13 occupants were killed in the accident. Deviating from this, some sources indicate that the machine is said to have been on a flight in the opposite direction from Blantyre to Dar es Salaam and that the crash site was in the village of Mkwaya, about 60 kilometers northwest of the port city of Mtwara .

root cause

On the Viking, the main spar of the middle section of the wing led in a tunnel through the fuselage to the “outboard” of the engines, dividing the passenger cabin into two compartments. This central spar section, in contrast to the I-spar of the outer wing, was designed as a lattice spar, with the upper and lower straps being formed by tubes. It was found that the type of grease that was used during maintenance while attaching the extrusion pins used in assembling the outer wings to the center wing caused corrosion at the joints. Together with material fatigue, this led to the breakage of the lower chord tubes of the central spar in a gust of wind and thus to the failure of the wing structure.

Web links

Accident report Vickers 616 Viking 1B, VP-YEY in the Aviation Safety Network
Accident report in the B3A - Bureau of Aircraft Accident Archives
Accident report on planecrashinfo.com

Individual evidence

^ Bernard Martin: The Viking, Valetta and Varsity , Air-Britain, Tonbridge 1975, ISBN 0 85130 038 3 , p. 20.
↑ Christopher Shores, Clive Williams: Aces High - A Tribute to the Most Notable Fighter Pilots of the British and Commonwealth Forces in WW II , Grub Street Publishing, 1994, ISBN 978-1898697008 , p. 529
↑ ^a ^b Captain Roy Downes: African Sunrise , accessed April 29, 2020
↑ Central African Airways, flight plan January to April 1953 , accessed on May 1, 2020
^ Philip W. Porter: Challenging Nature: Local Knowledge, Agroscience, and Food Security in Tanga Region, Tanzania , University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2006, ISBN 0-226-67580-7 , page 55
↑ Godfrey Mwakikagile: Life Under British Colonial Rule: Recollections of an African and a British Administrator in Tanganyika and Southern Rhodesia , New Africa Press, 2018, ISBN 978-9987160426
↑ ^a ^b H. A. Taylor: Vickers Commercial One - The Viking . In: AIR Enthusiast Twenty-one, April / July 1983, p. 45

[1] Bernard Martin: The Viking, Valetta and Varsity , Air-Britain, Tonbridge 1975, ISBN 0 85130 038 3 , p. 20.

[2] Christopher Shores, Clive Williams: Aces High - A Tribute to the Most Notable Fighter Pilots of the British and Commonwealth Forces in WW II , Grub Street Publishing, 1994, ISBN 978-1898697008 , p. 529

[sunrise-3] Captain Roy Downes: African Sunrise , accessed April 29, 2020

[4] Central African Airways, flight plan January to April 1953 , accessed on May 1, 2020

[5] Philip W. Porter: Challenging Nature: Local Knowledge, Agroscience, and Food Security in Tanga Region, Tanzania , University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2006, ISBN 0-226-67580-7 , page 55

[6] Godfrey Mwakikagile: Life Under British Colonial Rule: Recollections of an African and a British Administrator in Tanganyika and Southern Rhodesia , New Africa Press, 2018, ISBN 978-9987160426

[taylor-7] H. A. Taylor: Vickers Commercial One - The Viking . In: AIR Enthusiast Twenty-one, April / July 1983, p. 45