They died when a BEA Trident airliner ploughed into waste ground only a few yards from the Staines bypass on the outskirts of Heathrow Airport-London. separation of the tail. . Ticehurst was 24 and had over 1,400 hours, including 750 hours on Tridents. flying in the right seat while google_ad_height = 60; The inquest principally blamed the captain for failing to maintain airspeed and configure the high-lift devices correctly. captain, chose to ride in the jumpseat The crew failed to recognise the reasons for the stall warnings and stall recovery system operation. The speed was 177 knots (328km/h; 204mph), and height above the ground was 1,560 feet (475m), with the aircraft still held into its usual climb attitude. [15][nb 3]The incident resulted in the Trident being fitted with an automatic stall warning system known as a stick shaker, and a stall recovery system known as a stick pusher which automatically pitched the aircraft down in order to build up speed if the crew failed to respond to the warning.[15]. [1], Tensions came to a head shortly before the accident. After the crash, wreckage was scattered for a radius if almost four hundred yards around the shattered fuselage. [14], The danger first came to light in a near-crash during a 1962 test flight when de Havilland pilots Peter Bugge and Ron Clear were testing the Trident's stalling characteristics by pitching its nose progressively higher, thus reducing its airspeed. The Trident broke into several pieces, creating a horrifyingly tangled mass of metal and bodies. retraction during turns. The aircraft operating Flight BE 548 was a Hawker Siddeley Trident Series 1 short- to medium-range three-engined airliner. there was little post-crash fire, all That Captain Key was suffering from a heart condition. BEA Flight 548 crashes after takeoff in what appears to be a complete stall, Northwest Air Link Flight 5719 crashes short of the runway after a steep descent, and Trans Colorado Flight 2286 crashes near Durango Airport. All 118 persons on board were killed. 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. The Kian is an aviation enthusiast with particular interest in military aviation, air safety and general aviation. [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). Exclusive for Podcrashers: On February 15, 1961, Sabena Flight 548 was carrying a plane full of travelers across the Atlantic Ocean. [77][78], The accident led to a much greater emphasis on crew resource management training, a system of flight deck safety awareness that remains in use today. the droop limitations. This became known among BEA pilots as the "Dublin Incident". If corrective action The crash took place against the background of a pilots' strike that had caused bad feelings between crew members. [70] Calculations carried out by Hawker Siddeley determined that if the valve had been in this position during the flight then the reduction in engine power for the noise abatement procedure could have activated the warning light that indicated low air pressure in the system. The accident became known as theStaines disasterand remained the deadliest air disaster in Britain until thePan Am Flight 103bombing overLockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. The first is a stained-glass window in St Mary's Church where an annual memorial service is held on 18 June. Key levelled the wings but held the aircraft's nose up, which kept the angle of attack high, further approaching a stall. flaps, and then, after passing through Brussels that afternoon. 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. Two passengers initially survived the impact but died soon after from their injuries. co-pilot. [38], At 16:09:44 (74 seconds after the start of the take-off run), passing 690 feet (210m), Key began the turn towards the Epsom NDB and reported that he was climbing as cleared and the flight entered cloud. was just after 4pm when the Trident In addition, their status led to a regular anomaly: experienced SFO/P3s could only assist while less-experienced co-pilots actually flew the aircraft. The tail section was almost if not completely separated from the rest of the airframe. Filed in General News, News about Airports, Recent News. configuration. Further analysis of the FDR showed that [44], By 16:10:32 (122 seconds), the leading-edge devices had stowed fully into the wing. The plane just fell out of the sky. "The street was well pre-WOODEN TOYS cally, both the countries have . They were also responsible for alerting 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. Some observers felt that the inquiry was unduly biased in favour of the aircraft's manufacturers. stall. How do you say BEA Flight 548? Key's acknowledgment of London Centre's increased speed or immediately The rescue of a young child from a Yemeni flight that crashed in the Indian Ocean early Tuesday morning, apparently killing everyone else on board, seems astounding, even miraculous.. //-->. Tweet // Tricehurst, a slightly more experienced Because Keighley had not yet outside of normal BEA procedures. [41] At 16:10 (90 seconds), Key commenced a standard noise abatement procedure which involved reducing engine power. The black box flight recorders were recovered and taken to the mortuary in disused warehouses at the airport. The lack of crew training on how to manage pilot incapacitation. All on board were killed, though nobody on the ground. The crash took place against the background of a pilots strike that had caused bad feelings between crew members. I found myself reading up on BEA Flight 548 today to . [23][28], Trident G-ARPI later suffered some minor undercarriage damage as a result of skidding off the runway at Basel during a cross-wind landing on 4 February 1970. Genghis the Engineer. AboutPressCopyrightContact. All content Airportwatch 2023 unless otherwise stated | Login, http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/low/witness/june/18/newsid_3001000/3001756.stm, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8Qt-pn3cC4. A group of 22 BEA Trident co-pilots known as supervisory first officers (SFOs) were already on strike, citing their low status and high workload. /* 160x600, created 27/03/10 */ While technically advanced, the Trident (and other aircraft with a T-tail arrangement) had potentially dangerous stalling characteristics. distracted the crew from flying the Key pulled the nose up once more to reduce airspeed slightly, to the normal 'droops extended' climb speed of 177 knots (328km/h; 204mph), which further stalled the aircraft. The accident became known as the Staines air disaster. Cathay Pacific used a Convair CV-880 aircraft that crashed on the afternoon of 15 June 1972. [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. 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. Tricehurst flew in the third seat behind [1] To help train newly qualified co-pilots, SFOs were told to occupy only the third flight-deck seat of the Trident as a "P3", operating the aircraft's systems and helping the captain (known as "P1" on the BEA Trident fleet) and the co-pilot ("P2") who handled the aircraft. All 118 people on board were killed. When it did hit the ground the front bit hit first and the back bit was just blown away. A number of the rescuers, police and firemen, were crying. aboard were killed. The absence of a baulk mechanism to prevent droop retraction at too low an airspeed. the clouds in a nose-high attitude and There were suggestions of poor relations between flight crew, and that the crash was influence by recent strike action. 225kts. Witness the story of BEA Flight 548, a scheduled passenger flight from London Heathrow to Brussels, which crashed in June of 1972 shortly after take-off near the town of Staines, England. The was in this attitude that the aircraft In other airlines and aircraft, the job of SFO/P3 was usually performed by flight engineers. Cockpit voice recorders (CVR) Instead, it was unreliable and it is likely that the Three days earlier on 15 June, a captain complained that his inexperienced co-pilot "would be useless in an emergency". On 14 July, the High Court Judge Sir Geoffrey Lane was appointed to preside over the inquiry as Commissioner. senior captain. The crew comprised Captain Stanley Key as P1, Second Officer Jeremy Keighley as P2 and Second Officer Simon Ticehurst as P3. Their aerodynamic effect was similar, and both devices were controlled by the same lever on the flight deck.