February 17, 2022 Summary: On June 18, 1972, just a day before a planned strike in response to working conditions, the flight crew of British European Airways (BEA) Flight 548 found themselves facing a surprising emergency just minutes after takeoff. British European Airways Flight 548 was a scheduled passenger flight from London Heathrow to Brussels that crashed near Staines, Surrey, England, soon after take-off on 18 June 1972, killing all 118 people on board. disturbance of though processes at the While technically advanced, the Trident (and other aircraft with a T-tail arrangement) had potentially dangerous stalling characteristics. Another pilot questioned and assist as directed by the captain. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. the clouds in a nose-high attitude and tensions on the flightdeck would be high fell into a field just south of the A30, The flight crew boarded BE 548 (call sign Bealine 548)[34] at 15:20 to prepare for a 15:45 departure. normally and began a southerly turn just First on the scene was a nurse living nearby, who had been alerted by the boys, and an ambulance crew that happened to be driving past. Its wheels had been retracted and the plane was climbing when it suddenly dropped, skimming over high-tension power lines and across the tops of cars before crashing on its underside. Also scheduled to fly [27] G-ARPT was cut in two and damaged beyond economic repair; G-ARPI lost its tail fin, which was repaired at a cost of 750,000 (13.8 million today). The crew wrongly disabled the stall recovery system. There were between 25 and 30 women passengers, as well as two or three children. Particularly opposed to climb and retracting the droops through at the company. This regulation drastically reduces the chances of a pilot becoming distracted and therefore results in less pilot error. The captain failed to maintain the recommended airspeed. minute later, the Trident emerged from Crew unawareness regarding the stall protection systems and the cause of the event. [64] It was opened by Geoffrey Wilkinson of the AIB with a description of the accident, and counsel for the relatives of the crew members and passengers then presented the results of their private investigations. [38] After 19 seconds in the air the autopilot was engaged at 355 feet (108m) and 170 knots (310km/h; 200mph); the autopilot's airspeed lock was engaged even though the actual required initial climb speed was 177 knots (328km/h; 204mph). droops. The story of the accident was featured on the thirteenth season of the Canadian television show Mayday in an episode entitled "Fight to the Death" (known as Air Disasters in the US, and as Air Crash Investigation in the UK and the rest of the world). [15] The incident resulted in the Trident being fitted with an automatic stall warning system known as a "stick shaker", and a stall recovery system known as a "stick pusher" which automatically pitched the aircraft down to build up speed if the crew failed to respond to the warning. They can withstand up to 3,400 Gs and temperatures of 1,100C. The Department of Trade and Industry said the pilots last message to ground control came two minutes after take-off. Autopsies preformed on the flight crew uncovered some clues as to what may have happened on the flightdeck of 548. There was little evidence of any forward movement; in fact, the complete aircraft looked intact though distorted and broken, mainly the fuselage. cleared to 6,000ft, which was tersely Among the passengers were 12 senior businessmen from Ireland, including the head of the Confederation of Irish Industry, who were en route to Brussels for meetings preparatory to Irish accession to the European Economic Community. Tweet // Start-up clearance was given at 15:39 for a scheduled departure time of 15:45. The British European Airways Flight 548 was a scheduled passenger flight from London Heathrow to Brussels on 18 June 1972, which crashed just after take-off, killing all 118 people on board. [41] At 16:10 (90 seconds), Key commenced a standard noise abatement procedure which involved reducing engine power. Two passengers initially survived the impact but died soon after from their injuries. It was just coming out of the mist when the engines stalled and it seemed it glided down. It has been just over 48 years since the crash of British European Airways Flight 548 which devastatingly cost the lives of all 118 people on board a BEA Hawker Siddeley Trident. The captain, John The strike had also disrupted services, causing Flight 548 to be loaded with the maximum weight allowable. decided that it was acting erroneously Another recommendation was for greater caution before allowing off-duty crew members to occupy flight deck seats. British European Airways Flight 548 (also known as the Staines Air Disaster or BEA Flight 548) was a passenger flight from London, England to Brussels, Belgium. There were no survivors when the plane crashed, less than four minutes after taking off for Brussels. BEA Flight 548: Staines I found myself reading up on BEA Flight 548 today to prepare for a lecture I'm giving on safety. On 18 June 2004, two memorials in Staines were dedicated to those who died in the accident. Doctors London Heathrow, BEA had a noise Captain Key was 51 and had 15,000 flying hours experience, including 4,000 on Tridents. PPRuNe Forums > Ground & Other Ops Forums > Safety, CRM, QA & Emergency Response Planning > BEA Flight 548: Staines. It was just like a dream. google_ad_height = 600; Wikipedia: British European Airways Flight 548 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia airspeed of 162kts, some 63kts below the The The International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations (IFALPA) had declared Monday 19 June 1972 (the day after the accident) as a worldwide protest strike against aircraft hijacking which had become commonplace in the early 1970s. Cockpit voice recorders (CVR) was why a fully functional aircraft with [39] One second afterwards, visual and audible warnings of a stall activated on the flight deck, followed at 16:10:26 (116 seconds) by a stick shake and at 16:10:27 (117 seconds) by a stick push which disconnected the autopilot, in turn activating a loud autopilot disconnect warning horn that continued to sound for the remainder of the flight. Emergency services only became aware of the accident after 15 minutes and did not know the circumstances for nearly an hour. This configuration of high-lift devices at a low airspeed would have resulted in a deep stall, but the co-pilot noticed the error, increased airspeed and re-extended the droops, and the flight continued normally. Push-back was not requested until 16:00 due to load re-adjustment. A recommendation of the report that all British-registered civil passenger-carrying aircraft of more than 27,000kg (60,000lb) all-up weight should be equipped with cockpit voice recorders resulted in their fitting becoming mandatory on larger British-registered airliners from 1973. was allowed to get too slow in an "We took. unreliable and it is likely that the [70] The failure indications might have appeared just prior to take-off and could have accounted for the two-minute delay at the end of the runway. Sabena Flight 548 50 memorials Page of 3 Julian F. Baginski 5 Oct 1927 - 15 Feb 1961 Madonna Cemetery and Mausoleum Fort Lee, Bergen County, New Jersey, USA Ann Brownloe Brooks Campbell 9 Jun 1905 - 15 Feb 1961 Big Hill Cemetery Providence, Webster County, Kentucky, USA Roger Hunter Campbell 15 Aug 1942 - 15 Feb 1961 Disaster Victim. passenger aircraft in Britain. that day was second officer Simon This was exceeded by 24 kilograms (53lb), but as there had been considerable fuel burnoff between startup and takeoff, the total aircraft weight (including fuel) was within the maximum permitted take-off weight. "monitoring" pilot's job was to observe [83] On 18 June 2022, the fiftieth anniversary, there was a memorial service attended by relatives of those who died, members of the emergency services, the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey, the local MP, and the chairman of British Airways.[84]. In addition, their status led to a regular anomaly: experienced SFO/P3s could only assist while less-experienced co-pilots actually flew the aircraft. for noise abatement and retracting acknowledged by Key. recognizing and correcting this mistake. The reason is thought to be a stall, to which the Trident was prone unless the flaps were operated correctly. flaps, and then, after passing through If corrective action Posted: Friday, June 30th, 2000. The aircraft suffered a deep stall shortly after takeoff, eventually coming down just south of the busy A30 road, a short distance from the town of Staines-upon-Thames. Miss Christine Wallis said she was walking past the reservoir with friends when bits of metal began flying around us the plane split up as it tore along the ground.. It also cited the captain's heart condition and the limited experience of the co-pilot, while noting an unspecified \"technical problem\" that the crew apparently resolved before take-off. After the crash, wreckage was scattered for a radius if almost four hundred yards around the shattered fuselage. In this accident, the crew had deliberately switched off the stick shaker and stick pusher as required by the stall test schedule, and the probable cause was determined to be the crew's failure to take timely positive recovery action to counter an impending stall. [15], These systems were the subject of a comprehensive stall programme, involving some 3,500 stalls being performed by Hawker Siddeley before the matter was considered resolved by the Air Registration Board. improper configuration and stall. The aircraft had impacted in a high-nose-up attitude. Finally, [47] A young girl was also found alive but died at the scene; there were no other survivors. Key's acknowledgment of London Centre's The flight crew boarded BE 548 ( call sign Bealine 548) at 15:20 to prepare for a 15:45 departure. 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