Passengers 16 Fatalities 0 Aircraft type Vickers 610 Viking 1B Number of deaths 0 Destination Renfrew Airport | Crew 4 Survivors 20 Date 21 April 1948 Injuries (nonfatal) 13 Operator British European Airways | |
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Site Irish Law Mountain, North Ayrshire,
Scotland, United Kingdom Summary Controlled flight into terrain Similar 1948 Heathrow Disaster, 1948 Australian National, Northwest Airlines Flight 421, Northwest Airlines Flight 4422, 1948 Los Gatos DC‑3 crash | ||
On 21 April 1948, while on approach to Glasgow-Renfrew Airport, Vickers VC.1 Viking, registration G-AIVE, flying British European Airways Flight S200P crashed into Irish Law Mountain in North Ayrshire, Scotland. No one died in the accident, but 13 of the 20 passengers and crew were injured and the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.
Contents
Accident
The flight had taken off from London-Northolt Airport at 18:09 GMT (19:09 British Summer Time) on a short haul flight to Glasgow-Renfrew Airport in Scotland. After a 1-hour flight air traffic control at Glasgow-Renfrew cleared it for a standard beam approach into the airport. The last radio contact was at 20:01 when the crew requested confirmation that the outer marker was operative. As the aircraft neared the airport it hit a hill nose first and broke into 3 parts; the engine and the left wing also broke off. Although the plane burst into flames all 20 passengers and crew managed to escape, and all survived. Thirteen people were injured in the accident.
Cause
An investigation into the crash found the cause to be pilot error by the captain. Failure to receive the outer marker beacon signal (probably due to a fault that had developed in the receiver) was a contributory factor.
Crash site today
Some remnants of G-AIVE remain on the hill at Irish Law Mountain including the engines, landing gear and parts of the left and right wings.