The Llandow air disaster was an aircraft accident in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

in 1950. At that time it was the world's worst air disaster with a total of 80 fatalities. The aircraft, an Avro Tudor V, had been privately hired to fly

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

enthusiasts to and from an international game in Ireland. On the return flight the aircraft stalled and crashed on its approach to land.

Course of events

On 12 March 1950, an Avro 689 Tudor V, ''Star Girl'', owned by Airflight Limited and being operated under the "Fairflight" name, took off from

Dublin Airport Dublin Airport (Irish language, Irish: ''Aerfort Bhaile Átha Cliath'') is an international airport serving Dublin, Ireland. It is operated by DAA (Irish company), DAA (formerly Dublin Airport Authority). The airport is located in Collinsto ...

in Ireland, on a private passenger flight to Llandow aerodrome in

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

. The aircraft had 78 passengers and 5 crew on the manifest. The flight had been chartered privately for a trip to Belfast to watch the Welsh rugby union team compete against the Irish in the

Five Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Six Nations for sponsorship reasons) is an annual international men's rugby union competition between the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The current champions ar ...

at the

Ravenhill Stadium Ravenhill Stadium (known as the Kingspan Stadium for sponsorship reasons) is a rugby stadium located in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the home of Ulster Rugby. With the opening of a new stand for the 2014 Heineken Cup quarter-final against ...

. The aircraft had been initially booked for 72 passengers, but the plane had been stripped to accommodate another six. The weather conditions were clear, and no incident was reported after the outbound journey aboard the same aircraft. Eyewitnesses (including a Mr Russell) state that at 3:05 pm the Avro Tudor was approaching runway 28 of Llandow aerodrome at an abnormally low altitude with the

undercarriage Undercarriage is the part of a moving vehicle that is underneath the main body of the vehicle. The term originally applied to this part of a horse-drawn carriage, and usage has since broadened to include: *The landing gear of an aircraft. *The ch ...

down. The pilot attempted to correct the descent by increasing the power of the engines and brought the plane up. The aircraft rose steeply to 100 m (300 ft) attaining a nose-up attitude of 35 degrees to the vertical, and then the aircraft stalled. ''Star Girl'' plummeted towards the ground with the right wingtip hitting the ground first, followed in turn by the plane's nose and left wing, which separated from the

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

when it made contact. The plane turned clockwise and finally came to a rest near a field beside Park Farm close to the small

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

Sigingstone Sigingstone ( cy, Tresigin) is a small hamlet in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. It mainly consists of residential housing and two small working farms. There are two roads - one leading to the two nearby towns Llantwit Major and Cowbridge, and the ...

(or Sigginstone). There was no explosion on impact or ground fire. Two passengers who were sitting in additional seats bolted in at the back of the tail section walked away unaided, and a third man, who was in the lavatory and knocked unconscious at the time of the crash, survived but was in the hospital for four months. Eight more survivors of the initial impact died later in hospitals of their injuries, bringing the final death toll to 80, 75 passengers and all five crew. The March 13, 1950, edition of the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' reported thus: "London, 12 March—Eighty men and women were killed in Wales today in an aeroplane crash, the worst disaster in the history of aviation. Three men survived. The death toll eclipsed the previous record for airplanes, set last Nov. 2, when a fighter plane rammed an airliner near the National Airport in Washington, causing the deaths of fifty-five persons. It also exceeded the toll of seventy-three dead in the loss of the United States Navy dirigible ''

Akron Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city prop ...

'' off Barnegat, N.J., on 4 April 1933. The eighty persons lost in Wales went to their destruction in a type of aircraft – the British Avro Tudor – that had already caused fifty-four fatalities and had been banned from passenger service on Britain's publicly owned international airlines."

Fatalities

Memorial-Plaque-for-Llandow-Air-Disaster-in-Sigingstone-Wales--by-Mick-Lobb

The death toll of 80 exceeded the previous aviation fatality record, which was the 73 lives lost on the US Navy

dirigible An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

'' in 1933. This in turn would be surpassed on 20 December 1952, when 87 people died when a US Air Force

Douglas C-124 Globemaster II The Douglas C-124 Globemaster II, nicknamed "Old Shaky", is an American heavy-lift cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach, California. The C-124 was the primary heavy-lift transport for United States Air Force (USAF ...

crashed "Crashed" is the third U.S. rock Single (music), single, (the fifth overall), from the band Daughtry (band), Daughtry's debut album. It was released only to U.S. rock stations on September 5, 2007. Upon its release the song got adds at those stat ...

near

Moses Lake, Washington Moses Lake is a city in Grant County, Washington, United States. The population was 25,146 as of the 2020 census. Moses Lake is the largest city in Grant County. The city anchors the Moses Lake Micropolitan area, which includes all of Grant Co ...

. As far as civilian aviation-related deaths, the Avro disaster resulted in the highest loss of lives until 128 died in the 1956 Grand Canyon mid-air collision. The Tudor's single death toll for a civilian aircraft was the highest on record until 1958, when a KLM Super Constellation went down off Ireland, claiming 99 lives.

Investigation

After a court of enquiry chaired by William McNair KC the Ministry of Civil Aviation announced that the probable cause of the accident was the loading of the aircraft, which had moved the

centre of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may ...

considerably aft of where it should have been, thus reducing the effectiveness of the

elevators An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They are ...

Memorial

Amongst those who died were three members of Abercarn Rugby Football Club.

Llanharan RFC Llanharan Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club based in Llanharan, South Wales. Llanharan RFC was formally established in 1891-92 when Llanharan was little more than an agricultural hamlet. The earliest photograph on the clubhouse wall is date ...

lost six members of their playing team. Both clubs remember the victims with symbolism on their club badges. On 25 March in the final game of the 1950 Championship against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

at the

Cardiff Arms Park Cardiff Arms Park ( cy, Parc yr Arfau Caerdydd), also known as The Arms Park, is situated in the centre of Cardiff, Wales. It is primarily known as a rugby union stadium, but it also has a bowling green. The Arms Park was host to the British E ...

, the crowd stood in silence while five buglers sounded a

Last Post The "Last Post" is either an A or a B♭ bugle call, primarily within British infantry and Australian infantry regiments, or a D or an E♭ cavalry trumpet call in British cavalry and Royal Regiment of Artillery (Royal Horse Artillery and R ...

tribute to the memory of the supporters who had died in the plane crash.Godwin, Terry; ''The international Rugby Championship 1883–1983'' Willow Books, London (1984) pg. 238

Notes

External links