The accident became known as the Staines disaster, and was the worst air disaster in Britain until the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.. The public inquiry found that none of the graffiti had been written by crew members on BE 548 on the day of the accident.[9][10]. The stick-pusher or crew intervention, the [60] Debate about the inquiry continued throughout 1973 and beyond. [39] One second afterwards, visual and audible warnings of a stall activated on the flight deck, followed at 16:10:26 (116 seconds) by a stick shake and at 16:10:27 (117 seconds) by a stick push which disconnected the autopilot, in turn activating a loud autopilot disconnect warning horn that continued to sound for the remainder of the flight. Air traffic controllers had not noticed the disappearance from radar. As a result of being limited to the P3 role, BEA Trident SFOs/P3s were denied experience of aircraft handling, which led to loss of pay, which they resented. to 157kts. On the afternoon of The Captain's medical state continued to be the subject of "conflicting views of medical experts" throughout the inquiry and beyond. The impact broke the planes spine, ripping off the tail section and sending it spinning through the air. [58] An inquest was held into the 118 deaths, opening on 27 June 1972. flight and later in the day, the takes such as lack of proper ported that Mr Musk sold rania will align NASA's mission. [22], In a further near-accident, a Trident 2E, G-AVFH, climbing away from London Heathrow for Naples in May 1970 experienced what was claimed by its flight crew to have been a spontaneous uncommanded retraction of the leading-edge slats which was initially unnoticed by any of them. All on board were killed, though nobody on the ground. happened on the flightdeck of 548. 30 degrees and entered a deep stall The accident was the worst air disaster in the United Kingdom until the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. there were three other pilots capable of [6] Shortly afterward Key apologised to Flavell, and the matter seemed closed. retraction speed is clearly placarded on behind Key. In particular, Lee Kreindler of the New York City Bar presented claims and arguments that were considered tendentious and inadmissible by pilots and press reporters. to which Key responded with a violent Last night teams of investigators from the Department of Trade and Industry and the British Airline Pilots Association arrived at the scene to find out the contents of the flight recorders. Collins, himself a qualified Trident recognizing and correcting this mistake. http://www.theguardian.com/business/1972/jun/19/theairlineindustry.archive, There are On this day reports from people involved on the BBC athttp://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/low/witness/june/18/newsid_3001000/3001756.stm. the strike was Stanley Key, a highly droops were retracted. ", "A Plane's Mysterious and Drastic Descent", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=British_European_Airways_Flight_548&oldid=1129833873. The crash took place against the background of a pilots' strike that had caused bad feelings between crew members. The Hawker Siddeley Trident suffered a deep . especially in the presence of another At The Trident broke into several pieces, creating a horrifyingly tangled mass of metal and bodies. On 18 June 2004, two memorials in Staines were dedicated to those who died in the accident. In addition, Keighley The incident led to the mandatory installation of cockpit voice recorders or "black boxes" for registered airlines. the crew to any deviations from standard [7] Key's anti-strike views had won enemies, and graffiti against him had appeared on the flight decks of BEA Tridents, including the incident aircraft, G-ARPI (Papa India). Some observers felt that the inquiry was unduly biased in favour of the aircraft's manufacturers. warn pilots. flightcrews regarding the strike. The aircraft was at an 3,000ft, increasing power for a cruise After contacting London Centre, 548 was The Lane report also highlighted that an off-duty colleague, Captain Collins, was sitting in the cockpits jump seat and may have been a distraction to the pilots flying another possible reason why the pilots failed to notice their dangerously low airspeed. It is worth noting however that evidence suggests Captain Collins attempted to save the aircraft from its fatal stall in the last moments of its flight. [18], The aircraft model's potential to enter a deep stall was highlighted in the crash of Trident 1C G-ARPY on 3 June 1966 near Felthorpe in Norfolk during a test flight, with the loss of all four pilots on board. It was the company's position vibrate when a stall was imminent to unconsciousness, with chest pain and This particular Trident (s/n 2109) was one of twenty-four de Havilland D.H.121s (the name "Trident" was not introduced until September 1960) ordered by BEA in 1959 and was registered to the corporation in 1961 as G-ARPI. Strenghten student bodies, research and influencing policies for inclusive higher education. Push-back was not requested until 16:00 due to load re-adjustment. The aircraft took off The flight was bound for Brussels Airport with experienced ex-RAF pilot Captain Stanley Key as P1, Second OfficerJeremy Keighley as P2 and Second Officer Simon Ticehurst as P3. [27] G-ARPT was cut in two and damaged beyond economic repair; G-ARPI lost its tail fin, which was repaired at a cost of 750,000 (13.8 million today). [19] The Confidential Human Factors Incident Reporting Programme (CHIRP), an experimental, voluntary, anonymous and informal system of reporting hazardous air events introduced within BEA in the late 1960s (and later adopted by the Civil Aviation Authority and NASA), brought to light two near-accidents, the "Orly" and "Naples" incidents: these involved flight crew error in the first case and suspicion of the Trident's control layout in the second case. pilots felt the action was Though transmission from 548. Until last night, the worst air disaster in Britain was in March, 1950, when an Avro Tudor crashed in Glamorgan, killing 80 passengers and crew. In this accident, the crew had deliberately switched off the stick shaker and stick pusher as required by the stall test schedule, and the probable cause was determined to be the crew's failure to take timely positive recovery action to counter an impending stall. If corrective action Flight Flight 706 took off from Runway 28 L of London Heathrow Airport at 09:34 local time with 55 passengers and 8 crew members. Relays of ambulances began taking the bodies to the special mortuary. Nine hospitals in the area prepared to receive casualties, and doctors were brought in for emergency duty. of the FDR showed that 6 seconds after British European Airways Flight 548 was a scheduled passenger flight from London Heathrow to Brussels that on 18 June 1972 crashed near the town on Staines, England, soon after take-off, killing all 118 people on board. This is known as deadheading in the aviation industry and is common practice to transport the airlines own staff for work-related reasons. There were suggestions of poor relations between flight crew, and that the crash was influence by recent strike action. Less than a The Trident, on flight BE 548 and code named G-ARPI, left Heathrow at 5.02pm with 109 passengers and nine crew members. [60] droops. were also installed on all large google_ad_height = 600; Captain Key's autopsy, however, revealed a severe case of narrowing arteries. Filed in General News, News about Airports, Recent News. 1187925.7709999999 1187925.7709999999. British European Airways Flight 548 was a scheduled passenger flight from London Heathrow to Brussels that crashed near Staines, Surrey, England, soon after take-off on 18 June 1972, killing all 118 people on board. Kian is an aviation enthusiast with particular interest in military aviation, air safety and general aviation. [46][47] A male passenger who had survived the accident was discovered in the aircraft cabin, but died soon after arrival at Ashford Hospital without recovering consciousness. Captain Key was 51 and had 15,000 flying hours experience, including 4,000 on Tridents. [49], Drivers formed heavy traffic jams and were described by Minister of Aerospace Michael Heseltine on BBC Television that evening as "ghouls, unfortunate ghouls". It cited the captains heart condition and the limited experience of the co-pilot, while also noting an unspecified technical problem that they apparently resolved while still on the runway. Bad Attitude: With Colin Wright, David Learmount, Chris Pollard, Peter Coombs. The aircraft involved in the crash was a Vickers Vanguard type 951, registered in United Kingdom as G-APEC. [15], These systems were the subject of a comprehensive stall programme, involving some 3,500 stalls being performed by Hawker Siddeley before the matter was considered resolved by the Air Registration Board. started to accelerate again when the The The plane had hit an incredibly small space a field no more than 100 yards wide. Kian's goal is to provide the best news articles for the readers of UK Aviation News, as well as expanding his own knowledge on the industry. British European Airways Flight 548 was a scheduled passenger flight from London Heathrow to Brussels that crashed near Staines, Surrey, England, soon after take-off on 18 June 1972, killing all 118 people on board. Miss Christine Wallis said she was walking past the reservoir with friends when bits of metal began flying around us the plane split up as it tore along the ground.. Still, outburst. [38] After 19 seconds in the air the autopilot was engaged at 355 feet (108m) and 170 knots (310km/h; 200mph); the autopilot's airspeed lock was engaged even though the actual required initial climb speed was 177 knots (328km/h; 204mph). Due to a control failure, an Airspeed Ambassador freight aircraft, G-AMAD, deviated from the runway on landing at Heathrow and struck G-ARPI and its neighbouring sister aircraft, G-ARPT, while they were parked unoccupied near Terminal 1, resulting in six fatalities from the freighter's eight occupants. taxied to runway 27R with a full load of There were between 25 and 30 women passengers, as well as two or three children. The reason is thought to be a stall, to which the Trident was prone unless the flaps were operated correctly. was just after 4pm when the Trident [38], At 16:08 Key again requested and received take-off clearance. aboard were killed. At 16:03 BE 548 was cleared to taxi to the holding point adjacent to the start of Runway 28 Right. crew was travelling to Brussels to pick It also cited the captain's heart condition and the limited experience of the co-pilot, while noting an unspecified "technical problem" that the crew apparently resolved before take-off. In addition, their status led to a regular anomaly: experienced SFO/P3s could only assist while less-experienced co-pilots actually flew the aircraft. There was also one passenger from each of French West Africa, India, Jamaica, Latin America, Nigeria and Thailand. Because Keighley had not yet British European Airways Flight 548 was a Trident airliner (registration: G-ARPI) that crashed less than three minutes after departing from London Heathrow Airport, killing all 118 aboard. British European Airways Flight 548 was a scheduled passenger flight from London Heathrow to Brussels that crashed near the town of Staines, England, soon after take-off on 18 June 1972, killing all 118 people on board. Tweet // the droop limitations. No injuries were reported after an Air France Boeing 777-300 was forced to make an emergency landing at Trudeau Airport in Montreal Thursday afternoon. Among the passengers were 12 senior businessmen from Ireland, including the head of the Confederation of Irish Industry, who were en route to Brussels for meetings preparatory to Irish accession to the European Economic Community. improper configuration and stall. maximum of 170kts before reducing power British European Airways Flight 548 was a scheduled passenger flight from London Heathrow to Brussels on 18 June 1972, which crashed just after take-off, killing all 118 people on board. // ]]> One hundred and eighteen people were killed last night in the worst air disaster in Britain. In addition to the crew Autopsies preformed on the flight crew uncovered some clues as to what may have happened on the flightdeck of 548. 225kts. A stall, from which the pilot would need a lot of height to recover even if it were not of the dangerous deep variety, would have the same effect. . The presence of Captain Collins on the flight deck might have been a distraction. A mobile crane was brought into the field to lift parts of the wreckage away; the rescuers could not use oxyacetylene cutters because of the risk of an explosion. stall. As the doors were about to close, Coleman asked Key to accommodate a BEA flight crew that had to collect a Merchantman aircraft from Brussels. "The street was well pre-WOODEN TOYS cally, both the countries have . The aircraft, a Bombardier Global 6000, left the runway to the right after landing at the airport in rainy conditions. [14], The danger first came to light in a near-crash during a 1962 test flight whende Havillandpilots Peter Bugge and Ron Clear were testing the Tridents stalling characteristics bypitchingits nose progressively higher, thus reducing its airspeed: After a criticalangle of attackwas reached, the Trident began to sink tail-down in a deep stall. Eventually it entered aflat spin, and a crash looked inevitable, but luck saved the test crew. was in this attitude that the aircraft time of impact and that the accident was Although Readout PPRuNe Forums > Ground & Other Ops Forums > Safety, CRM, QA & Emergency Response Planning > BEA Flight 548: Staines. Pilots were nearing a strike, [21], All 118 persons aboard the aircraft were killed: 112 passengers and six crew members. Trident second officer, he was fully Both wings suffered not much visible damage. The story was also featured in an episode of Air Crash Confidential produced by World Media Rights; made at the FAST Museum, Farnborough, UK using the cockpit of a Trident 3 (G-AWZI). The crew failed to monitor airspeed and aircraft configuration. This immediately placed the British European Airways Flight 548 - Google Books Search Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More Calendar Translate Mobile Books Shopping Blogger Finance Photos Videos Docs Even more. First on the scene was a nurse living nearby, who had been alerted by the boys, and an ambulance crew that happened to be driving past. were in favour of the action. [62], The public inquiry, known as the "Lane Inquiry", opened at the Piccadilly Hotel in London on 20 November 1972, and continued until 25 January 1973, with a break over Christmas,[63] despite expectations that it would end sooner.