The Winter Hill air disaster occurred on 27 February 1958, when the

Silver City Airways Silver City Airways was an airline, based in the United Kingdom, that operated mainly in Europe, between 1946 and 1962. Unlike many airlines at the time, it was independent of government-owned corporations; its parent company was Zinc Corpo ...

Bristol 170 Freighter The Bristol Type 170 Freighter is a British twin-engine aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company as both a freighter and airliner. Its best known use was as an air ferry to carry cars and their passengers over relatively s ...

''G-AICS'', operated by

Manx Airlines Manx Airlines was an English-owned, Isle of Man-based airline that existed between 1982 and 2002. Its head office was located on the grounds of Isle of Man Airport in Ballasalla, Malew. An airline of the same name existed between 1947 and 1958. ...

on a

charter flight Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad hoc – flights r ...

from the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England, crashed during heavy snow into Winter Hill (also known as Rivington Moor), southeast of

Chorley Chorley is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Chorley in Lancashire, England, north of Wigan, south west of Blackburn, north west of Bolton, south of Preston and north west of Manchester. The town's wealth came pr ...

. Thirty-five people died and seven were injured; the cause was determined to be navigational errors.

Background

The flight was a charter flight from

Ronaldsway Airport Ronaldsway () is a place in the parish of Malew in the south of the Isle of Man, between the village of Ballasalla and the town of Castletown. Features It is notable as the location of Isle of Man Airport and historically of RNAS Ronaldsway, to ...

Ballasalla Ballasalla () is a village in the parish of Malew in the south-east of the Isle of Man. The village is situated close to the Isle of Man Airport and north-east of the town of Castletown. History Ballasalla grew up around nearby Rushen Abbey. ...

, on the Isle of Man to Manchester Ringway Airport, operated by Manx Airlines with the Silver City Airways Bristol 170 Freighter ''G-AICS'', call sign "Charlie Sierra". It was flying a group mostly consisting of people connected with the motor trade in the Isle of Man to visit the Manchester Exide Battery factory at Clifton Junction and the Manchester car show.

Crash

Winter Hill Air Disaster Memorial Plaque

The aircraft took off from Ronaldsway Airport with a crew of three,

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

, first officer, and stewardess, and 39 passengers, bound initially for an aircraft reporting point at Squire's Gate, near

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

. Take-off was delayed by repairs to navigation equipment, and as a result because of other air traffic in the Manchester area as well as poor weather in England, the captain was ordered to maintain an altitude of rather than climbing to the normal . After receiving clearance 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 ...

at Manchester Ringway, the flight continued inland to

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

Beacon, a

non-directional beacon A non-directional beacon (NDB) or non-directional radio beacon is a radio beacon which does not include directional information. Radio beacons are radio transmitters at a known location, used as an aviation or marine navigational aid. NDB are ...

in the Manchester Zone, which transmitted a recognition signal of "MYK" in Morse code on a frequency of 316

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that on ...

and a range of c. . While the captain was briefly absent from the cockpit, the first officer erroneously tuned the

radio compass Direction finding (DF), or radio direction finding (RDF), isin accordance with International Telecommunication Union (ITU)defined as radio location that uses the reception of radio waves to determine the direction in which a radio station ...

to the frequency for

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, wh ...

Beacon instead of Wigan Beacon; visibility was extremely poor and the mistake was first noticed by Manchester Control, who at 9:44 AM ordered an immediate right turn. Shortly afterwards, the aircraft crashed near the summit of Winter Hill, several hundred yards from the

Independent Television Authority The Independent Television Authority (ITA) was an agency created by the Television Act 1954 to supervise the creation of "Independent Television" (ITV (TV network), ITV), the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom. The ITA exi ...

Winter Hill transmitting station The Winter Hill transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications site on Winter Hill, at the southern boundary of the Borough of Chorley, Lancashire and above Bolton. It is owned and operated by Arqiva. Height The original mast at ...

. The weather was so severe that none of the engineers working at the transmitting station were aware of it until a survivor came to summon help. Several feet of snow hampered rescue efforts, and a snow cat vehicle had to be diverted from the A6 to cut a path for emergency vehicles, though the track had been cleared by people using spades previously.

Passengers and crew

Thirty-five of the passengers were killed, one of whom died later from injuries. Seven people survived, including the three crew. , it was the worst high ground air crash in the United Kingdom and the 11th worst for number killed since 1950.

Investigation

The probable cause of the accident was determined to have been the first officer's error tuning the radio compass, with the captain's failure to confirm the correct tuning as contributory cause.

ICAO The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international a ...

Accident Digest, Circular 59-AN/54 (83–92) The inquiry also ascribed some blame to the air traffic controllers and to the design of the aircraft's

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...

, in which navigation displays were above and slightly behind the pilots' seats and therefore difficult to see.

Background

Crash

Passengers and crew

Investigation

Sources

Further reading