Dan-Air Flight 240 was a fatal accident involving a

Hawker Siddeley HS 748 The Hawker Siddeley HS 748 is a medium-sized turboprop airliner originally designed and initially produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Avro. It was the last aircraft to be developed by Avro prior to its absorption by Hawker Siddeley. ...

series 2A

turboprop A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. Fuel ...

aircraft operated by Dan Air Services Limited on the first stage of a night mail flight from

London Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after Hea ...

East Midlands Airport East Midlands Airport is an international airport in the East Midlands of England, close to Castle Donington in northwestern Leicestershire, between Loughborough (), Derby () and Nottingham (); Leicester is () to the south and Lincoln () nort ...

. The crash, which occurred on 26 June 1981 near the village of

Nailstone Nailstone is a village and civil parish in the Hinckley and Bosworth district of Leicestershire, England, situated to the west of Leicester and north-east of Market Bosworth. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 521, ...

, Leicestershire, following major

structural failure Structural integrity and failure is an aspect of engineering that deals with the ability of a structure to support a designed structural load (weight, force, etc.) without breaking and includes the study of past structural failures in order to ...

caused by the failure of a cabin door, resulted in the aircraft's destruction and the deaths of all three on board (both pilots and a

cabin attendant A flight attendant, also known as steward/stewardess or air host/air hostess, is a member of the aircrew aboard commercial flights, many business jets and some government aircraft. Collectively called cabin crew, flight attendants are primar ...

).''Chance door impact may have led to 748 accident''
World News, ''Flight International'', 25 July 1981, p. 210
Air Transport, ''Flight International'', 3 March 1984, p. 552

The aircraft

The aircraft, operated by Dan Air Services Ltd, was a Hawker Siddeley HS 748-108 series 2A (construction/manufacturer's serial number: 1560, registration: G-ASPL) that had its first flight in 1964. Skyways Coach-Air was its original operator.

Dan-Air Dan-Air (Dan Air Services Limited) was an airline based in the United Kingdom and a wholly owned subsidiary of London shipbroker, shipbroking firm Davies and Newman. It was started in 1953 with a single aircraft. Initially, it operated cargo a ...

acquired the aircraft from Skyways International, Skyways Coach-Air's successor, in

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

. At the time of the accident it had flown 34,592 hours.

Accident

The aircraft departed

London Gatwick Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after Hea ...

at 17:28 with an

estimated time of arrival The estimated time of arrival (ETA) is the time when a ship, vehicle, aircraft, cargo, emergency service, or person is expected to arrive at a certain place. Overview One of the more common uses of the phrase is in public transportation where the ...

(ETA) at

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Li ...

of 18:25. The crew included two pilots and a cabin attendant, in accordance with Dan-Air's policy to carry one attendant in addition to the flightdeck crew on mail flights. (The attendant was known as a ''postal assistant'' on these flights.) During its initial descent towards its destination, the attendant reported that one of the cabin door's indicators was showing an unlocked condition. Shortly afterwards, the right hand rear door (the baggage door) opened, detached itself from its hinge mounts and became lodged on the leading edge of the right horizontal

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplane ...

. Later reconstruction of the aircraft's flight path from

flight recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has b ...

evidence indicated that cabin decompression occurred when it was in the vicinity of

Market Bosworth Market Bosworth is a market town and civil parish in western Leicestershire, England. At the 2001 Census, it had a population of 1,906, increasing to 2,097 at the 2011 census. It is most famously near to the site of the decisive final battle of ...

. The aircraft became uncontrollable and went into a steep dive, which terminated in several abrupt pitch oscillations. Immediately after the decompression, the

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

asked the

co-pilot In aviation, the first officer (FO), also called co-pilot, is the pilot who is second-in-command of the aircraft to the captain, who is the legal commander. In the event of incapacitation of the captain, the first officer will assume command o ...

to transmit a "

MAYDAY Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications. It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiza ...

" and request permission from

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airs ...

(ATC) to come straight in for an

emergency landing An emergency landing is a premature landing made by an aircraft in response to an emergency involving an imminent or ongoing threat to the safety and operation of the aircraft, or involving a sudden need for a passenger or crew on board to term ...

, reporting that he thought he had lost the rear door and that he was having severe control problems. Shortly after, the radar controller who handled flight 240 noticed that the aircraft was turning right beyond its assigned heading; however, his attempts to contact the crew proved futile. Approximately three minutes after the last distress message, reports began to reach ATC from the police of an aircraft crash. Several people on the ground witnessed the final moments of flight 240. The consensus of their evidence was that the stricken plane was lower than usual compared with other aircraft

approaching ''Approaching'' is the fourth live album by contemporary classical chamber orchestra Symphony Number One Symphony Number One (SNO) is a chamber orchestra primarily devoted to new music based in Baltimore, Maryland. SNO performs approximately c ...

East Midlands, and that it was losing

altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...

as well as oscillating in both pitch and

roll Roll or Rolls may refer to: Movement about the longitudinal axis * Roll angle (or roll rotation), one of the 3 angular degrees of freedom of any stiff body (for example a vehicle), describing motion about the longitudinal axis ** Roll (aviation), ...

. As it regained level attitude, both wings folded up almost simultaneously and became detached from the fuselage, along with other parts of the

structure A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...

. The wreckage was found scattered across several fields, approximately northeast of the village of Nailstone.

Cause

It was concluded that the accident had been caused by the baggage door becoming lodged on the leading edge of the right tailplane after it had opened and detached. This changed the aircraft's aerodynamic characteristics so that it became uncontrollable. This in turn resulted in overstressing of the wings and tailplane leading to inflight structural failure, with both wings and tailplane detaching from the fuselage. Contributory factors were the mis-rigged state of the door operating mechanism, which allowed the top and bottom pairs of catches to lose synchronisation, and failure of the door warning indicators to give the crew enough time to respond to door safety alerts.

Notes

References

* *
''748 report''
Air Transport, ''Flight International'', 3 March 1984, p. 552 {{Aviation accidents and incidents in 1981 Aviation accidents and incidents in 1981 Aviation accidents and incidents in England Accidents and incidents involving the Hawker Siddeley HS 748 Dan-Air accidents and incidents June 1981 events in the United Kingdom

The aircraft

Accident

Cause

See also

Notes

References