 An Iberia Sud Aviation Caravelle similar to the accident aircraft | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 4 November 1967 |
| Summary | Controlled flight into terrain for undetermined reasons |
| Site | Near Blackdown Hill, United Kingdom 51°03′06″N 0°41′26″W / 51.05167°N 0.69056°W / 51.05167; -0.69056 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Sud Aviation Caravelle |
| Aircraft name | Jesús Guridi |
| Operator | Iberia |
| Registration | EC-BDD |
| Flight origin | Málaga Airport, Spain |
| Destination | London Heathrow Airport, UK |
| Occupants | 37 |
| Passengers | 30 |
| Crew | 7 |
| Fatalities | 37 |
| Survivors | 0 |
Iberia Flight 062 was a twin-engined Sud Aviation Caravelle registered EC-BDD operating a scheduled flight from Málaga Airport, Spain, to London Heathrow Airport. While on approach to Heathrow on 4 November 1967, the Caravelle descended far below the flight level assigned to it and flew into the southern slope of Blackdown Hill in West Sussex, killing all 37 on board.
Crash sequence
The time of the accident was approximately 10:02 pm, about 5½ minutes after the plane had been cleared to descend from FL110 (11000 ft) to FL60 (6000 ft). Flying at a shallow rate of descent, the Caravelle first clipped trees near Black Down House, then broke through a large hedge and careened across a meadow where 65 sheep were killed outright and 23 more were fatally injured. The disintegrating plane continued on, destroying a garage and damaging parts of the roof of Upper Black Down House.
Aviation fuel caused small fires to break out in the wooded hillside. Debris from the aircraft was scattered over the whole of the roughly 355 yards (325 m; 1,065 ft) of its passage.
Investigation
An investigation could not determine why the aircraft descended through its assigned flight level. Audio recordings taken from air traffic control and from the recovered cockpit voice recorder revealed nothing unusual. The investigation stated that "no evidence was found of any pre-crash failure or defect in either the airframe or the engines, or of any faulty workmanship."
The investigation report gave considerable attention to the possibility that the air crew could have misread their "three-pointer" altimeters, which were designed to warn the pilots with a cross hatch indicator when the altitude was below 10,000 feet. An excerpt from the report stated:
"The aircraft descended continuously at a steady rate over a period of 13½ minutes and the pointers would have been in continuous motion throughout, increasing the likelihood of misreading. The cross hatching in this type of altimeter first appears in a window in the 10,000ft disc at an indicated altitude of 26,666ft and the edge of the cross hatching would have been visible within 2 minutes of the aircraft beginning its descent. At 10,000ft the cross hatching completely fills the window and it remains filled as long as the aircraft is below 10,000ft. Thus the cross hatching would have been visible to the crew for a period of about 9½ minutes before the aircraft passed through FL60 and it is a matter of conjecture whether it was still an effective warning to them at that stage of the descent.
"With this type of altimeter it is not difficult to read an indication of 6,000ft as 16,000ft if particular note is not made of the position of the 10,000ft pointer. Evidence against the possibility of simple misreading of this sort is the message from the aircraft to ATC reporting passing FL145, indicating at this time the crew knew that they were below 16,000ft. "
Victims
Among the dead was British film and TV actress June Thorburn, who was five months pregnant.
A mass grave and memorial for 19 of the deceased is located 28 km (17 mi) north of the crash site at 51°18′09″N 0°37′44″W / 51.30254°N 0.6288°W / 51.30254; -0.6288 in Brookwood Cemetery, Brookwood, Surrey.
The nationality of the 37 casualties are listed below.
| Nationality | Casualties |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 25 |
| Spain | 9 (inc. 7 crew) |
| United States | 2 |
| Australia | 1 |
See also
- United Air Lines Flight 389 – another incident where altimeter misreading is suspected, but not proven
References
- ^ Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network
- "CARAVELLE 10,000FT TOO LOW". Flight International. 9 November 1967. p. 749. Archived from the original on 26 September 2012. Retrieved 2 September 2009.
- ^ "CARAVELLE CRASH REPORT". Flight International. 30 August 1970. p. 264. Archived from the original on 10 March 2018. Retrieved 2 September 2009.
- ^ "Blackdown air crash". Fernhurstsociety.org.uk. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
- "Air Crash Fernhurst". Find A Grave. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
Further reading
- Partridge, Ewan (2005), "Fernhurst Remembered – Ewan Partridge recalls the tragic accident to an Iberian Airlines Caravelle on a flight to London Heathrow in November 1967.", Aviation News Incorporating Air Pictorial, vol. 67, no. 9 (published September 2005), pp. 691–693, ISSN 0965-1896
- Sussex Constabulary (1967). Report on Air Disaster at Blackdown Hill, Sussex, 4 November 1967 Supt G. Dinley .
External links
- Report on the accident to Caravelle SE-210 EC-BDD at Black Down near Fernhurst Sussex on 4th November 1967 (Civil Aircraft Accident Report C.A.P. 343 EW/C/0192) – Released by the Board of Trade
- 1967 Newsreel footage of the crash wreckage from British Pathé (Record No:44981) at YouTube
- Fernhurst Society page on the crash, includes hand-drawn police map of crash site and newsreel video link
- Flight International, 30 August 1970, p. 264 (PDF) – includes a summary of the Board of Trade crash report
- Photograph of Caravelle EC-BDD – taken two months before the crash
- The Fernhurst Air Disaster: 50 Years On
- Inventory of items in the UK National Archives relating to the crash – of interest to researchers
| Aviation accidents and incidents in 1967 (1967) | |
|---|---|
| Jan 14 Aeroflot Flight 5003Feb 16 Garuda Indonesian Airways Flight 708Feb 28 Philippine Air Lines Flight 345Mar 5 Lake Central Airlines Flight 527Mar 5 Varig Flight 837Mar 9 TWA Flight 553Mar 10 West Coast Airlines Flight 720Mar 13 South African Airways Flight 406Mar 30 Delta Air Lines Flight 9877Apr 11 Air Algérie DC-4 crashApr 20 Nicosia Globe Air Bristol Britannia crashJun 3 Air Ferry DC-4 accidentJun 4 Stockport air disasterJun 23 Mohawk Airlines Flight 40Jun 30 Thai Airways International Flight 601Jul 6 Philippine Air Lines Flight 385Jul 19 Piedmont Airlines Flight 22Aug 27 Lake Erie skydiving disasterSep 5 ČSA Flight 523Oct 12 Cyprus Airways Flight 284Nov 4 Iberia Flight 062Nov 6 TWA Flight 159Nov 15 X-15 Flight 3-65-97Nov 16 Aeroflot Flight 2230Nov 20 TWA Flight 128Dec 8 Faucett Perú Douglas C-54 crashDec 30 Aeroflot Flight L-51 | |
| 1966 ◄ ► 1968 |
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| Accidents and incidents in Crown Dependencies and current Overseas Territories are marked with an asterisk (*). 1950–1959 ◄ 1960–1969 ► 1970–1979 | |
- Aviation accidents and incidents in 1967
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