On 5 January 1953, a

Vickers Viking The Vickers Viking was a British single-engine amphibious aircraft designed for military use shortly after World War I. Later versions of the aircraft were known as the Vickers Vulture and Vickers Vanellus. Design and development Resear ...

airliner operated by

British European Airways British European Airways (BEA), formally British European Airways Corporation, was a British airline which existed from 1946 until 1974. BEA operated to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East from airports around the United Kingdom. The a ...

crashed on approach to Belfast

Nutts Corner Royal Air Force Nutts Corner or more simply RAF Nutts Corner is a former Royal Air Force station located east of Crumlin, County Antrim, Northern Ireland and north west of Belfast. It was originally a civil airfield, then it became a military ...

Airport, Northern Ireland. The aircraft was on a domestic flight from London Northolt Airport with 31 passengers and 4 crew on board. Twenty-four of the passengers and three crew members died in the accident.

Aircraft

The Vickers Type 610 Viking 1B airliner, powered by two Bristol Hercules 634 14-cylinder radial engines, was registered G-AJDL with manufacturer's serial number 262. It was delivered to British European Airways in March 1949. Originally named ''Vortex'' by the airline, it was renamed '' Lord St Vincent'' around 1951.

Accident

G-AJDL left Northolt at 07:27, 25 minutes late. Two hours later it was on approach to Nutts Corner. When the aircraft was out from the runway threshold it was above the

glideslope Instrument landing system glide path, commonly referred to as a glide path (G/P) or glide slope (G/S), is "a system of vertical guidance embodied in the instrument landing system which indicates the vertical deviation of the aircraft from its o ...

. The aircraft then rapidly lost height and hit the pole supporting an approach light a short distance from the

aerodrome An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...

. Following the initial impact the aircraft hit further poles; it then hit a mobile standard beam approach van before striking a brick building housing equipment operating the

instrument landing system In aviation, the instrument landing system (ILS) is a precision radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to aircraft to allow them to approach a runway at night or in bad weather. In its original form, it allows an aircraft to ...

about from the runway. This impact caused the aircraft to break up. There was a slight fire after the accident.

Investigation

A board of inquiry was formed to investigate the accident, chaired by David Scott Cairns, QC. It opened in London on 14 April 1953. After hearing evidence, the board concluded that the pilot, Captain Hartley, made "errors of judgement" but that no moral blame was to be attached to him regarding the accident. The board mentioned that hitting the van stopped any chance of the aircraft reaching the runway, and then hitting the building made a tragedy inevitable. The approach lights were found to not be at the top of the poles, to ease maintenance; although that was not judged a factor in the crash, the lights were moved to the top of the poles following the accident. It was also recommended that when the ILS building was rebuilt that it should be offset from the approach path, or that it should be sited underground.

References

Bibliography

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nutts Corner Viking accident Aviation accidents and incidents in 1953 Aviation accidents and incidents in Northern Ireland 19530105 Accidents and incidents involving the Vickers VC.1 Viking 1953 disasters in the United Kingdom 1953 in Northern Ireland 20th century in Belfast Airliner accidents and incidents in the United Kingdom January 1953 events in the United Kingdom