Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701
Istanbul Atatürk Airport, Turkey | |
Last stopover | Frankfurt Airport, Germany |
---|---|
Destination | London Gatwick Airport, England |
Passengers | 54 |
Crew | 8 |
Fatalities | 48 |
Injuries | 14 |
Survivors | 14 |
Ground casualties | |
Ground fatalities | 2 |
Ground injuries | 1 |
Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 was involved in
The accident occurred at 01:35[note 1] on a Sunday morning, a time when the Gatwick area was enveloped in patches of dense, freezing fog. The Boeing 727, registered as YA-FAR (the sole aircraft of this model in the airline's fleet), descended below its correct glide slope as it approached the airport from the east. As the aircraft traversed over the small hamlet of Fernhill, located on the Surrey/Sussex border, it struck trees and rooftops, initiating a roll and subsequently crashing into a field south of Fernhill Lane. This location was approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) short of the runway. Following the initial impact, the aircraft collided with a large detached house, resulting in its complete demolition and the ignition of a fire.[5]
The tragic incident resulted in the death of 48 passengers and crew members. Additionally, two adult residents of the demolished house lost their lives due to the impact. An infant present in the house survived the incident with only minor injuries. The flight's captain, first officer, flight engineer, and eleven passengers also survived the crash.
Location
Fernhill is a hamlet about 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) from the east end of Gatwick Airport's runway[4] and a similar distance south of the nearest town, Horley.[5] Until boundary changes brought it fully into West Sussex (and the borough of Crawley) in 1990,[6] it straddled the Sussex/Surrey border and was in the parish of Burstow.[7][note 2] The two main roads, Peeks Brook Lane and Fernhill Road (named Fernhill Lane at the time of the accident),[11] run south–north and west–east respectively.
The crash site was a field west of Peeks Brook Lane, south of Fernhill Lane and east of Balcombe Road, a B-road[5] which forms the eastern boundary of the airport. Antlands Lane is further to the south.[5] A house called Longfield south of Fernhill Lane was destroyed by the impact.[5][11]
Accident
Flight FG 701 from
Weather in the Gatwick area overnight on 4–5 January 1969 was poor. There was heavy, freezing fog,
As the aircraft approached Fernhill and was within 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) of Gatwick's runway, it clipped the top of some oak trees in the garden of a house called Twinyards[15] on Peeks Brook Lane.[4][16] This was about 500 yards (1,500 ft; 460 m) from the point of impact on the ground. It then left tyre marks on the roof of the neighbouring house[5] and knocked chimney-pots off the house opposite,[15] a further 264 feet (80 m) on. At this point the aircraft was only 40 feet (12 m) off the ground. It then caught a television aerial and another group of trees, damaging components on the right-side wing. As it started to roll, the aircraft's wheels touched down briefly and it started to rise again. It failed to clear Longfield, a detached house owned by William and Ann Jones[4] which stood 300 yards (900 ft; 270 m) further west, and completely destroyed it.[4][16] One engine landed in the wreckage of the house along with the rear section of the fuselage, while the forward section of the aircraft disintegrated over a 1,395-foot (465 yd; 425 m) trail.[16] The fuel spilt and immediately caught fire, engulfing the fuselage and the wreckage of the house.[11] The Joneses were killed, but their baby survived with minor injuries:[17] the sides of her cot collapsed inwards, "forming a protective tent under one of the engines".[18]
Residents of Peeks Brook Lane were the first to arrive at the crash site and to contact the emergency services.
Aircraft
The Boeing 727 was less than a year old at the time of the accident and was Ariana's only such aircraft.[4] YA-FAR was built in February 1968 and received its American airworthiness certificate on 25 March 1968. On 29 April 1968 it was granted its registration in Afghanistan, and that country issued its own airworthiness certificate on 14 May 1968. At the time of the crash, the aircraft had recorded 1,715 hours of flying time.[14]
Accident investigators from the Board of Trade took the wreckage to a hangar at Farnborough Airport for analysis.[17] Also involved in the investigation were officials from the United States and Afghanistan.[2] A preliminary statement was issued on 17 January 1969,[20] and the full accident report followed in June 1970.[21]
Crew and passengers
There were 54 passengers on board, 43 of whom were killed. The other 11 suffered serious injuries;
Aftermath
The emergency services established a temporary triage facility and rescue centre outside Yew Tree Cottage[15] and later an incident room at Horley police station.[5] Survivors were taken into Fernhill House[11] before being transferred to Redhill General Hospital[4] or, in the case of five badly burned people, the McIndoe Burns Unit at East Grinstead Hospital.[11] Two passengers died en route to Redhill General.[4][23] The baby who survived in the wreckage of the house was also taken there[18] suffering from "severe bruising and slight cuts".[17]
The victims' bodies were transferred to the
In terms of fatalities, the accident was (and remains as of 2024) the worst in the vicinity of Gatwick Airport. It was the first serious incident at the airport since a crash in February 1959, when a Vickers Viscount operated by Turkish Airlines came down in a wooded area between Rusper and Newdigate, also on the Surrey/Sussex border,[17] killing 14 passengers and injuring the Turkish Prime Minister Adnan Menderes.[28]
Investigation and cause
Investigators found the cause of the crash was pilot error by the captain. His decision to land at Gatwick was an "error of judgment" brought about by the "deceptive nature" of the weather conditions, which were very difficult—although this itself did not cause the accident. Instead, failure to extend the flaps in the correct sequence and at an appropriate speed caused the aircraft to fall below its glide slope,[29] roll to the right in a nose-high attitude, and crash.
The accident report noted that YA-FAR had a full and "serviceable" instrument panel, a working
The Captain's decision to fly to London rather than remain at Frankfurt was not criticised: he could have landed at Heathrow or Stansted, where the weather was clear, instead of Gatwick if he felt conditions were too bad, and the aircraft could even return to Germany if necessary.[34] By the time the aircraft approached Gatwick, the runway visual range was 100 metres (330 ft) according to the latest weather report at 2350 on 4 January, and was not expected to improve that night; furthermore, this reading was confirmed at 0123 and 0127.[12] At the time, British-registered aircraft were not allowed to land at an airport at a time when its runway visual range was lower than its "declared minimum" (Gatwick's was 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km)), but foreign aircraft had their own rules and were not subject to British legislation. Ariana Afghan Airlines pilots were instructed not to land when the runway visual range was lower than an airport's declared minimum (although this was not prohibited by law), but they could use their judgment on whether to descend to critical height[note 3] (200 feet (61 m) for this aircraft) and then attempt a landing.[36]
Captain Nowroz "decided that since patchy fog shifts quickly he would make an approach with a view to landing at Gatwick". The accident report stated that because he was relying principally on visual indications as he came in to land, he may have been distracted from his flight-deck duties; and patchy fog in otherwise clear conditions has been known to severely affect the sighting of visual references, sometimes leading to "disastrous errors of judgment".[36]
Nevertheless, Captain Nowroz's decision to approach Gatwick with a view to landing there presented "no undue risk" and did not cause the accident.
The first three flap adjustments took place at higher speeds than recommended in the airline's procedures, although they did not exceed the Boeing 727's limits.
The legislation prohibiting British aircraft from landing when the runway visual range was too short was extended in September 1969 to cover aircraft from all other countries when flying to airports anywhere in the United Kingdom.[36]
See also
- American Airlines Flight 383
- Garuda Indonesia Flight 150
Notes
- ^ All times in this article are in Greenwich Mean Time, as used in the official accident report[2] and in parliamentary discussions about the events.[3] Most contemporary accounts put the events one hour later: i.e. the crash was said to have occurred at 02:35.[4]
- ^ Ordnance Survey maps dated 1963 and 1973 indicate that the crash site was immediately on the Sussex side of the county boundary, which crossed Fernhill Lane about halfway between Donkey Lane and Peeks Brook Lane. The house demolished in the crash is shown next to the boundary line on the 1963 map,[8] but on the later map only its grounds and former driveway are marked.[9] In 1990, the boundary was moved further east to the eastern edge of the M23, bringing Peeks Brook Lane and all its buildings into West Sussex.[10]
- ^ This term, introduced in 1951, is defined as "the altitude specified in the [aircraft's] Operations Manual as the minimum height above airfield level to which an approach to land can safely be continued without visual reference to the ground."[35]
References
- ^ a b Kelly 1970, §1.14.
- ^ a b Kelly 1970, Introduction.
- ^ a b "Aircraft Accident, Gatwick". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 776. House of Commons. 20 January 1969. col. 440–444.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Bird, Philip; Moore, Joe; Mulcock, John (6 January 1969). "How horror came from the sky at 2.35 am". Evening Argus (Special Extra ed.). Brighton. p. 12.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "Surrey Constabulary – Part 3: Policing Change 1951–1975. Airliner crashes on approach to Gatwick Airport 1969". The Open University International Centre for the History of Crime, Policing and Justice. Open University and Robert Bartlett. 2013. Archived from the original on 31 October 2014. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
- ^ Review of non-Metropolitan counties: County of West Sussex and its Boundary with Surrey (PDF). LGBCE Report No. 589 (Report). Local Government Boundary Commission for England. 26 April 1990. §§. 23, 66. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 October 2013. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- ^ Malden, H. E., ed. (1911). "A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3. Parishes: Burstow". Victoria County History of Surrey. British History Online. pp. 176–182. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
- ^ Map (Map). 1:10560. Cartography by Ordnance Survey. old-maps.co.uk (Historical Map Archive). 1963. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
- ^ Map (Map). 1:2500. Cartography by Ordnance Survey. old-maps.co.uk (Historical Map Archive). 1973. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
- ^ Review of non-Metropolitan counties: County of West Sussex and its Boundary with Surrey (PDF). LGBCE Report No. 589 (Report). Local Government Boundary Commission for England. 26 April 1990. Map 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 October 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Couple die in house wiped out in Gatwick air disaster: 50 dead". Crawley & District Observer. No. 4552. Crawley. 10 January 1969. p. 14.
- ^ a b c d Kelly 1970, §1.1.
- ^ a b Kelly 1970, §1.7.
- ^ a b Kelly 1970, §1.6.
- ^ a b c d Bird, Philip; Moore, Joe; Mulcock, John (6 January 1969). "'Oh my God – plane's crashed – I hear kids'". Evening Argus (Special Extra ed.). Brighton. p. 13.
- ^ a b c Kelly 1970, §1.12.
- ^ a b c d e f Bird, Philip; Moore, Joe; Mulcock, John (6 January 1969). "Heartbreak day for air crash families". Evening Argus (Special Extra ed.). Brighton. p. 1.
- ^ a b Bird, Philip; Moore, Joe; Mulcock, John (6 January 1969). "The miracle escape of baby Beverley". Evening Argus (Special Extra ed.). Brighton. p. 13.
- ^ Kelly 1970, §1.13.
- from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
- ^ Kelly 1970, §3.
- ^ a b Kelly 1970, §1.5.
- ^ International Publishing Corporation Ltd. p. 24.
- ^ Kelly 1970, §1.3.
- ^ Kelly 1970, §1.2.
- ^ "Tragedy in the darkness". Crawley & District Observer. No. 4552. Crawley. 10 January 1969. p. 10.
- ^ "No. 44913". The London Gazette (Supplement). 7 August 1969. p. 8214.
- ^ "1959: Turkish leader involved in fatal crash". BBC "On This Day" archive. BBC News. 17 February 1959. Archived from the original on 13 November 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
- ^ Kelly 1970, §2.2 (a).
- ^ Kelly 1970, §1.8.
- ^ Kelly 1970, §1.9.
- ^ Kelly 1970, §1.11.
- ^ Dan, Klein. "Afghan 701". Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 17 July 2013.
- ^ Kelly 1970, §2.1 (a).
- from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
- ^ a b c d Kelly 1970, §2.1 (b).
- ^ a b Kelly 1970, §2.1 (c)(i).
- ^ Kelly 1970, §2.1 (c)(ii).
Bibliography
- Kelly, G.M. (June 1970). Civil Aircraft Accident Report No. EW/C/303: Report on the Accident to Boeing 727-112C YA-FAR 1.5 miles east of London (Gatwick) Airport on 5th January 1969 (Report). Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Archived from the original on 7 September 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
External links
- "Air Transport: Ariana Accident: First Findings". Flight International, 23 January 1969. pp. 127–128.
- Aviation Safety Network – Accident description
- Airdisaster.com[usurped]
- "Picture of YA-FAR – Boeing 727-113C aircraft" – Airliners.com
- "Report on the Accident to Boeing 727-112C YA-FAR 1.5 miles east of London (Gatwick) Airport on 5th January 1969" Archived 7 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine – Gatwick Aviation Society
- "Fatal Plane Crashes and Significant Events for the Boeing 727" – airsafe.com
- "Aircraft Accident, Gatwick", HC Deb 20 January 1969 vol 776 cc40-4 – Hansard
- "Gatwick – Boeing Crash 1969" Archived 11 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine – British Pathe
- "Accident details" – planecrashinfo.com
- "Photo of the crashed aircraft"[usurped] – airdisaster.com
- Cockpit Voice Recorder transcript and accident summary
- "England Plane Crash Said Pilot Error" – The Evening Independent – 6 Jan 1969