Disappearance of the star Ariel

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Disappearance of the star Ariel
Avro 688 Tudor 4B G-AHNI BSAA WFD 04/30/49.jpg

An identical Avro Tudor Mark IV B of the BSAA ( Star Olivia )
Accident summary
Accident type uncertain
place Atlantic Ocean
date January 17, 1949
Fatalities 20th
Survivors 0
Aircraft
Aircraft type United KingdomUnited Kingdom Avro 688 Tudor Mark IV B
operator United KingdomUnited Kingdom British South American Airways
Mark United KingdomUnited Kingdom G-AGRE
Surname Star Ariel
Departure airport Kindley Field , Bermuda
BermudaBermuda 
Destination airport Kingston Airport , Jamaica
Jamaica 1906Jamaica 
Passengers 13
crew 7th
Lists of aviation accidents

The Star Ariel disappeared on January 17, 1949. On that day, a 20-person Avro 688 Tudor Mark IV B aircraft of British South American Airways (BSAA) disappeared on a flight from Kindley Field in Bermuda to Kingston , Jamaica . Since the accident occurred in the area of ​​the so-called Bermuda Triangle, proponents of a related mystery hypothesis describe it as an associated riddle.

plane

The Star Ariel (serial number 1253) was built in August 1946 as the Tudor Mark I and was converted into the Tudor Mark IVB as the first Tudor Mark I in November 1946. It received its airworthiness certificate on November 12, 1948. The Tudor IVB largely corresponded to the Mark IV series, but had only 28 seats instead of 32. The long-haul aircraft had four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines . The cockpit was designed for a crew of five, consisting of a captain, first officer, flight engineer, navigator and radio operator.

Flight history

On January 17, 1949, the Star Ariel was at Kindley Field , Bermuda . Another Avro Tudor of the BSAA, the G-AHNK Star Lion , had an engine failure on approach to Bermuda. Although the machine was able to land without any special incidents, it was temporarily unavailable due to an upcoming engine repair. Therefore, the Star Ariel was made available to fly the passengers of the G-AHNK to their destination in Kingston , Jamaica .

The Star Ariel took off at 8:41 a.m. with 7 crew members and 13 passengers on board. The weather was excellent and flight captain John Clutha McPhee, a former Royal New Zealand Air Force pilot , decided to fly at high altitudes due to the weather conditions. About an hour after take-off, the captain reported by radio to the air traffic control in Kingston, stated that with good visibility he was flying at an altitude of 18,000 feet and should arrive in Kingston at around 2:10 p.m. He asked Kingston Air Traffic Control if they would take control. Shortly afterwards, McPhee answered again and announced that he was changing the radio frequency. After that, radio contact with the machine was lost.

search

A Tudor IV of the BSAA, the G-AHNJ Star Panther , was involved in the subsequent search for the Star Ariel . It landed in Nassau , Bahamas , was refueled and took off at 3:25 p.m. to fly the southern half of the Star Ariel's route . Another plane took off in Bermuda, flew 500 miles (800 kilometers) in the direction of Kingston, and then performed a grid search within 10 miles of the flown route. A task force of the US Navy , led by the battleship USS Missouri and accompanied by the aircraft carriers USS Kearsarge and USS Leyte, accompanied the search, in which dozens of other ships and numerous aircraft took part in the further course.

By January 19, an area of ​​140,000 square kilometers southwest of Bermuda had been searched. United States Air Force Major Keith Cloe, who led the search, said it would continue until at least January 22nd. If reports of debris are found, the search will be extended. Eventually the search was canceled on January 23rd. By then, the planes that had flown from Kindley Field had flown a total of 1,600,000 kilometers without finding a trace of the missing machine. No traces of rubble, oil spills or wreckage were found.

Accident investigation

The accident investigation came to the conclusion that the weather was not bad on the day of the accident. The weather reports indicated no abnormal weather conditions and the likelihood of clear air turbulence occurring was close to zero. Above 10,000 feet (approx. 3000 meters) there were no clouds at all along the entire flight path of the machine.

Despite the good weather, there were communication problems on the day in question, ranging from poor radio reception to complete failure of radio communication for periods of up to 10 minutes. These communication problems affected certain machines trying to contact multiple radio stations from different directions. The communication problems dragged on for almost the entire time that the Star Ariel was scheduled to be in the air. The problem could not be resolved until around 1:07 pm.

In connection with the radio traffic, it was found that Captain McPhee had changed the radio frequency in the direction of Kingston early. At that time, the machine was still in the Bermuda catchment area.

The accident investigators considered that a possible emergency call via this frequency was not received by the air traffic control there due to the distance of the aircraft to Kingston.

Result

On December 21, 1949, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch published the final report on the accident investigation. It stated that "due to the lack of evidence due to the lack of wreckage, the cause of the accident is unknown".

The report stated that there had been no evidence of a defect on the aircraft prior to departure from Bermuda. The take-off weight and the weight distribution on board the aircraft were in accordance with regulations, and the aircraft was inspected daily; the highly experienced captain of the machine was familiar with the route and the radio officer was familiar with both his job and the route. The radio connection with the machine was good until the last report was received, there were no weather complications and the analysis of the weather reports did not allow any conclusions to be drawn that weather conditions could have caused the machine to crash. There was also no evidence of sabotage, although the head of the accident investigation department stated that such a possibility could not be completely ruled out.

While it was acknowledged that radio reception was poor in the early afternoon and deteriorated between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., investigators found it strange that the BSAA staff in Kingston were 2 hours and 28 minutes after the last radio contact with the machine hadn't tried to reach her. Even the air traffic control in Kingston had made no attempts until 5:10 p.m. to reach the machine or to find out whether they had contacted one of the other control points, such as Nassau or New York.

Opinions on the Avro Tudor

The BSAA pilots had different opinions regarding the handling of the Avro Tudor. Some, like Captain Geoffrey Womersley, loved it and called it "the best civil airliner in the air". Others said it had an unsound design, such as chief pilot and operations manager Gordon Store, who said the Tudor was “built like a battleship. It was loud, I had no faith in its engines and its flight systems were desperate. The Americans were 50 years ahead of us when it came to developing flight systems. "

The designer of the machine, Roy Chadwick , was killed in a crash with a prototype of the Tudor in 1947, but this crash happened directly at take-off and was obviously due to an incorrectly installed control unit. A year before the Star Ariel disappeared, the BSAA's Star Tiger , which was identical in construction, had also disappeared in the Caribbean.

consequences

As a result of the loss, the BSAA took its five remaining Tudor IV out of service for additional inspections. As alternative aircraft of comparable capacity were hard to find at the time, the company found it difficult to maintain operations. The BSAA finally considered renting Avro Lancastrian machines .

The Australian aviation pioneer Don Bennett , who was released by the BSAA after the investigation report to the Star Tiger had contradicted later claimed that the two lost planes were from out of the Second World War infamous saboteur been brought down, the last just before the Start of the Star Tiger was seen near the aircraft. He also alleged that Prime Minister Clement Attlee ordered that all investigations into the two incidents be stopped.

The Tudor IV aircraft were converted to cargo planes, with Bennett continuing to operate two machines on passenger flights. In 1950, one of these machines caused the most serious aviation accident to date, an Avro Tudor, with 80 fatalities.

According to a theory from 2009, the vulnerable cabin heating system could have caused a crash.

context

Proponents of a mystery hypothesis for the area of ​​the so-called Bermuda Triangle describe the accident as an associated puzzle because it occurred there.

With the machines Star Ariel, Star Tiger and Star Dust , three machines of the airline British South American Airways, which was taken over by BOAC in 1949, were lost in 1947, 1948 and 1949 . Of the three machines, only the latter was rediscovered after more than 50 years in the Andes. A total of 62 people were killed on the three flights.

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b "19 missing aboard UK plane" , Courier Mail (English), January 19, 1949, accessed April 24, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b Bermuda Triangle plane mystery 'solved' , BBC News , September 13, 2009, accessed April 24, 2019.
  3. ^ Accident report Tudor, G-AGSU Aviation Safety Network , accessed on April 18, 2019.
  4. ^ Accident report Tudor, G-AHNP Aviation Safety Network , accessed on April 18, 2019.
  5. ^ Accident report Tudor, G-AKBY Aviation Safety Network , accessed on April 18, 2019.