AIR DISASTER

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 126, 13 March 1950, Page 3

AIR DISASTER

EIGHTY PERSONS KILLED WORST CRASH IN HISTORY 9 (N.Z.P.A.-Keuter—Copyright). (Rec.lo.lo) LONDON, March 13. Seventy-nine persons of 83 aboard a plane lost their lives as bl result of the world’s worst air disaster to-day, when an Avro Tudor airliner, packed with football fans, heeled over in mid-air and ploughed into a held in South Wales.

Seventy-five were killed in the crash, and! of five seriously, injured passengers dragged from the wreckage, four have since died. Two others staggered to a nearby farm; and a thyrd was found dazed near the= shattered plane murmuring, “Get some help.”

Eye-witnesses said the plane turned over in mid-air after over-shooting the runway of the Lladow (Cardiff) purport. "

The plane, with a crew of five, was taking 78 persons from Dublin to Cardiff after the international Rugby match between Wales and Ireland at Belfast.

The director and operations-manager of the firm that owned the plane was the Australian wartime Pathfinder hero, Air Vice-Marshal Donald Bennett, who has been one of the foremost proponents of the controversial Tudors. The plane that crashed was a. Tudor Mark 5, which normally is equipped to carry 72 passengers on short journeys, 47 on trans-Atlantic flights and 50 to other destinations. The earlier type, the Tudor Mark 4—was grounded by the British Air Ministry in 1948 after two had vanished over the Atlantic.

To-day’s crash occurred after the plane had turned over in the air as it did a climbing turn. The Tudor nosedived into a field, where it lay shattered with clothing and luggage strewn over a wide area. It did not catch fire. A later message says another survivor has died,' bringing the death toll to 80.-

Scores df relatives and friends waited the plane’s arrival at Llandown airport to cheer triumphant Rugby fans home after the Wales victory, over their traditional Irish rivals. Row upon row of cars were there to meet them as the plane appeared out of a cloudless blue sky and started to nudge its way down. People at the airport reported that only three of the four propellors were working as the plane came in. Above the runway it began to climb at full throttle. Then it stalled, heeled over and with a heart-rending crump, tore its way into a field half a mile from the airstrip.

Theory Advanced One* theory is that the passengers crowded to the windows on the side of the plane where the engine was feathered, and made it lurch. The plane broke in half as it landed. The forepart of the Tudor was only a few yards from a farmhouse. One of the engines dug itself eight feet into the ground. The dead were taken by 60 ambulances to an R.A.F. hospital, converting an entire wing into a temporary morgue. , The three survivors, all badly hurt, are being treated at the hospital. Tw;> of them were the last to get on the pldne, and escaped by a door at the rear of the plane, which was the least damaged. Two of the survivors are brothers-in-law. At least three women are among the killed; ' One of the first men to reach the plane told reporters: “I looked in and it was a horrible sight. The bodies were all piled up together. Most of those inside the plane were either unconscious, dead or dying. I felt sick. ’ The Tudor’s certificate of airworthiness was originally for a maximum of 72 passengers, but it was later increased to 78—the number on board to-day. Air Vice-Marshal Bennett and Lord Pakenham, Minister of Civil Aviation, have gone to the scene of the crash, as have three Ministry of Civil Aviation accident investigation officers. One of these officers is an expert on airframes. The others are engine specialists. They will make a piece by piece inspection of the scattered wreckage.

Previous Accidents The previous heaviest death-roll in a commercial plane crash was last. November, when 55 persons were killed in a collision between . a Sky? master and a Lightning fighter aircraft near Washington . national airport. The biggest British aeroplane disaster .until now was 39 killed, when a Swedish -airliner collided with an R.A.F. York transport plane near Northolt airport in August, 1948. Other major air disasters include 62 killed when the British dirigible ZR2 snapped in two on a trial trip near Hull on August 24, 1921, and 73 killed when the United States dirigible Akron crashed into the sea on January 4, 1933, off the New Jersey coast. The Tudor Mark 11, from which the Tudor 5 was developed, crashed in August, 1947, during a -test flight, killing the Tudor’s designer, Roy Chadwick. The Tudor Mark 4 was grounded in 1948 after the Star Ariel disappeared between Bermuda and Kingston, Jamaica, with 22 passengei s and seven of a crew. Earlier 25 passengers and seven of a crew lost their lives when the Tudor Mark 4 Star Tiger vanished between the Azores and Bermuda. The Ministry 'of Civil Aviation later ruled that the Tudor 4 should no longer be used on passenger routes. The Avro Tudor is the commercial version of the Lancaster bomber. % The last few years of the career of Vice-Marshal Bennett has been a historv of unshaken faith in the Tudors. After a brilliant career as chief of the R.A.F. Pathfinders, he became chief executive of British South American Airways in 1945. Then came the great Tudor controversy, which saw Air Vice-Marshal Bennett as one of the Tudor’s greatest proponents. The Tudor Mark 4’s were grounded? and early in 1948 British South American Airways announced that it had ended Air Vice-Marshal’s appointment “after differences of opinion on matters of policy.” Air Vice-Marshal Bennett's faith i.n the Tudor was unshaken, and

he was soon flying a Tudor of his own. He then formed a chatter company, Fairflight Limited, which owned the plane which crashed to-day, and made over 300 flights on the Berlin airlift. He later ran a thriving airline between Yemen and Israel with Tudors, one of which was badly damaged by Egyptian anti-aircraft fire last October. Then, piloting his own Tudor aircraft, Air Vice-Marshal Bennett' ran an airlift for Pakistan.