This Plane Was About To Break (BKS Air Transport Flight C.6845) - DISASTER BREAKDOWN

[@DisasterBreakdown]

If you found this video to be interesting, be sure to subscribe as there is a new video every Saturday. This video also went out to my Patrons on Patreon 48 hours before going out publicly. Consider joining here from £1 per month: www.patreon.com/DisasterBreakdown Twitter: twitter.com/Chloe_HowieCB

[@charlotteinnocent8752]

Hello I love your videos! I really will donate, erm, as soon as the financial situation soothes a little I am so sorry not to do so immediately. I read a comment below that someone wrote about an emergency landing on a race course. I think that you could make a WONDERFUL series on "Close Calls" apart from accidents. I would love a whole series not on crashes, but on close calls! We never hear about close calls because it's chiefly crashes that make the head lines and some of these close calls would be just as interesting mechanically and psychologically. Not that you're not probably busy enough, but if you are ever wondering what you might like to do next. And thank you again!

[@TheaSvendsen]

I second the proposal to do close calls on your channel instead of only focusing on the crashes - there must be a lot of near disasters that changed aviation and its procedures for the better, most likely saving many lives. That is something I’m sure that we all would love to hear more about!

[@saminaneen]

@@charlotteinnocent8752 Only if he gets, some decent freeware, or pay ware planes, and gets current with MSFS 2020

[@NorwayT]

Fascinating story and very well researched.

[@willlecomber7509]

Anyone find it weird that the trident that had been hit in the crash, only had the tail piece taken off, and when the trident had its fatal crash, pretty much the only piece of the the plane that was still in tact was the replaced tail section

[@DisasterBreakdown]

wow yeah I hadn't noticed that myself

[@monkofdarktimes]

That is odd

[@nikshmenga]

bizarre

[@robertmcghintheorca49]

I can't believe I never considered that before. It's really creepy.

[@R8andGT3Fan]

That's the first thing that I noticed! 😥

[@ZombieSazza]

Hearing that the plane that survived and was repaired became the Staines crash? That just sent chills down my spine.

[@nikshmenga]

the hair on the back of my neck stood up

[@TheaSvendsen]

Flying might be safer than driving in a car etc., but there’s still a lot of plane crashes when you dive into it :-/

[@6yjjk]

And it looks like only the tail survived...

[@ZombieSazza]

@@6yjjk you know when my flatmate watched this video with me this morning he said the EXACT same thing

[@giggiddy]

​@@6yjjk Exactly what I thought. The first crash. Only the tail was demolished. The second crash, only the tail survived.

[@emills6525]

This is a good example on how complicated these machines are, and how one broken system can prove to be fatal.

[@dfuher968]

And why redundancies are so important!

[@TheaSvendsen]

@@dfuher968 Yes, exactly this! Hearing that the right side was “borrowing” the mechanics from the left was a huge surprise to me. I know that we’ve come a long way in aviation safety but I had never imagined that anyone would think such a design could ever be a good idea. But if the plane was previously used in WW2, then it probably needed to be as lightweight as possible (in order to carry heavy bombs etc). Still, I was pretty chocked at that revelation. Thank god that we’ve learned from the mistakes of the past …even though it cost dearly in lives lost.

[@freddiecunningham2860]

That's so scary to think about that. Is that's why planes now have 2 yokes etc?

[@forceawakens4449]

​@@freddiecunningham2860 yes, redundancy prevents any one problem from being too serious. Modern planes go as far as to double or triple up the clmputer systems

[@hernerweisenberg7052]

@@forceawakens4449Unfortunately there are some things that cannot be made redundant tho. Like the computer evaluating the output of the triple flight computers. Its very rare, but i think there was one case where a cosmic ray flipped a bit in that evaluating computer and despite the triple flight computers all agreeing on the altitude, that flipped bit changed it to think it was somewhere else entirely and it nosedived to get back to where it thought it should be while on altitude hold autopilot...

[@emilycormeraie8858]

So I’ve mentioned before that I live in Ireland; and my town has actually just celebrated the 40 year anniversary of a planes emergency landing! You should check it out, it’s a cute story. A Mexican private jet was to land in Shannon Airport to refuel. However, due to poor weather, they were suddenly diverted to Cork Airport. They weren’t able to make it and made a fantastic landing at our local racecourse!

[@emilycormeraie8858]

Check out the Ocana Mallow Racecourse landing

[@ZombieSazza]

Thanks for this - I spent the last 2 hours reading and have updated the Cork Racecourse Wikipedia with information about this fantastic story, along with a mention of Ocaña Fest and his daughter spreading his ashes. That is genuinely one of the most heartwarming stories I’ve ever read

[@emilycormeraie8858]

@@ZombieSazza Awww thanks for looking into my little town and this story. It’s one of the legacies they have.

[@cristiancristi9384]

My sister lives in Ireland... I will tell her to find out about that story.... Definitely interesting 😁

[@charlotteinnocent8752]

I hope she does make a video on that! I would love a whole series not on crashes, but on close calls! We never hear about close calls because it's chiefly crashes that make the head lines and some of these close calls would be just as interesting mechanically and psychologically.

[@kevinnorth9927]

I was there a 7 year old kid with my parents observing Aircraft from the Queens Building. I did not witness the crash but felt it as he ground shook an incredible explosion with a huge plume of black smoke darkening the skies. I'll never forget that day , thanks for covering it here I never knew the cause.

[@sunnyfon9065]

It shocks me when I heard that one of the 3 planes, which were damaged by this crash, was later repaired but crashed few years later as BEA Flight 548.

[@nikshmenga]

shocking if the damaged/repaired plane hadn't crashed few years later

[@awuma]

The crash of BEA Flight 548 was entirely due to pilot error, a heart attack and negative CRM. Many lessons were learned, although it took many more accidents for crew resource management to become hugely important.

[@geoffhunter7704]

Another Airspeed Ambassador was involved in the Manchester United,Munich Air Disaster of 1958 with the sad loss of the Busby Babes Team Members!!!

[@NeoTheKuria]

The tail was the part damaged but in BEA548 The tail was intact..🤨🤨📸📸

[@thatguyalex2835]

@@awuma Agreed 100%, and I watched that one a few hours ago, and it was sad that the pilot of 548 got into a fight about politics (he was against the BEA employee fair wage protest/strikes). Personally, I support fair wages, and peaceful actions, but the pilot of flight 548 didn't listen to the younger generation. It always seems that these tragic events lead to safer planes, but sometimes, and sadly it takes too many tragedies before people decide to change. The silver lining is that cockpit resource management and actual automation systems have made planes safer from the late 20th century into the 21st century (The 2020s have been much safer for flying compared to the 1970s for instance).

[@zacktong8105]

I had never heard of this unfortunate accident, but after the infamous Manchester United accident at Munich involving an Ambassador the plane probably NEVER recovered its reputation and this one killing eight prize race horses was the coup de grace!

[@awuma]

But it was such a beautiful plane! One is being restored at Duxford.

[@robinsonsstudios]

Tragedy aside, can we agree that the Airspeed Ambassador is an utterly beautiful aircraft?!

[@RatPfink66]

In the same sense that Princess Margaret was an utterly beautiful woman...except that both had rather prominent noses and tended to make unfortunate headlines.

[@super20dan]

no it was a ugly ass plane with a very poor safty record

[@nigelbond4056]

I’d never heard of this disaster before, thank you Chloe for explaining it so eloquently. Quite how anyone survived that impact is beyond me. Remarkable when you see the impact and subsequent explosion.

[@sunnyfon9065]

I’ve seen this plane crash footage before but never knew more about this accident. Since you have covered on this accident, I will watch the whole video. I love your videos, Chloe. I do like to see you covering on the accidents and incidents of Malaysia Airlines flights.

[@5amH45lam]

I'm British, in my 40s, yet never heard of this event! 😯 Thanks for bringing it to our attention. Great vid, as always. 👍

[@DisasterBreakdown]

Thanks for watching!

[@johnhill8529]

The chief engineer at BKS had realised that the flap rod on these aircraft was vulnerable and a potentially catastrophic single point of failure. The certification engineers at the CAA had over ruled him. John Moody’s family were very nearly left penniless, but a campaign by some of the BKS crews and ground staff raised a considerable sum to help. The Ambassador was the first aircraft I ever flew in on a commercial flight. It was beautiful, noisy, but incredibly comfortable. I saved this to watch later as my grandfather flew them. I’ve just stepped out of £65M of incredibly complex jet tonight, my flying career has 5 years left and our real knowledge of metal fatigue still sees engineers doing dye penetrant checks, parts are lifted for fatigue, and we still don’t know as much about metal fatigue as we’d like to.

[@None-zc5vg]

A fatigue failure in a wingflap bolt caused a Viscount crash at Ringway, nr. Manchester, in 1957: the plane was only a minute or so from landing.

[@johnhill8529]

@@None-zc5vg thank you, I’ll take a look through the AAIB records for that (if they’ve uploaded that far back yet) the Viscount was the first aircraft I flew for a living and is a much loved memory in my career.

[@matthewc7334]

More on the story about the Chief Engineer and the flap lever fatigue is in "Behind the Cockpit Door" by Arthur Whitlock, pp262-265. It is sad that often a person's concerns are over-ridden by finances and people who do not want to know! John Moody is also mentioned several times in that book.

[@johnhill8529]

@@matthewc7334 one of the best aviation books I have ever read.

[@bigdmac33]

I thought that I was familiar with every UK air accident, yet here's one that I knew nothing about. Thank you for this splendid presentation.

[@DisasterBreakdown]

Thanks for tuning in :)

[@Tikibunss]

That footage hits hard. Seeing the nose tilt up especially...Thank you for sharing this incident with us. Fantastic work as always.

[@johnjephcote7636]

Watching the clip, I can see the nose very high, the a/c struggling for power to gain height but it simply stalls, just falling out of the air.

[@thatguyalex2835]

The final second of the footage was too difficult to see, so the best course of action for me was to turn away during that few second period near the end. No airline in my opinion should have been using late 1940s (well, 1950) aircraft with faulty parts in the late 1960s, when more modern technology was available. Well sometimes, it could be expensive for an airline to replace a 15-20 year old aircraft with a newer plane, so it is understandable. But the designers of the plane should have made the flap rod redundant or out of steel or titanium, but I'm no engineer. Thankfully nowadays in the 2020s, metal fatigue is better understood, and planes are much safer.

[@stephanieparker1250]

The horses… 😰💔

[@annabethchase2569]

This could've been soooooo much worse in terms of lives lost - one of the few accidents that unfortunately veered a plane into a terminal. You had a near empty terminal building at Heathrow in the 60s, 2 completely empty planes where 1 of them was unrecoverably destroyed, the original plane without many passengers as it was a cargo plane, and even on top of that 2 people and a horse survived. I shudder to imagine how bad it would be if the accident happened today on a busy day at the busiest terminal in Heathrow with a full passenger plane hitting multiple other full passenger planes. And there would probably be more planes too, some waiting to enter or exit from the terminal or taxiing. It's less likely due to checks and balances, but any issue causing a plane to uncontrollably veer into the terminal area is terrifying.

[@TheaSvendsen]

That was where my thoughts went immediately as well - incredibly lucky!! I actually breathed a huge sigh of relief when I heard that there were ZERO fatalities on the ground. Seeing the footage in the beginning of the video, I was positive that this crash left little to no survivors.

[@thirdwheel1985au]

I almost changed to a different video when I heard horses were on board. Glad I stuck it out.

[@GeorgeMCMLIX]

I remember way back in the early 70s, as a young teenager, seeing a BBC documentary featuring this tragic incident. Titled the Air Crash Investigators it looked at the work of the UK CAA Air Accident Investigation Branch. I was fascinated by the intricate investigation and reconstruction of the aircraft remains, which eventually led to the discovery of the cause of the crash. Excellent presentation 👍🏻 Thank you.

[@MarkSmith-hy9ll]

I was a six year old spotter who, with my dad, left the Queens Building viewing area overlooking that line of Tridents literally five minutes before it happened. So glad I didn't see it. Even so as I got older it naturally drew my interest into why it occurred so can say that this is excellent video explanation of the event. Liked and subscribed.!

[@AzovAzza]

I’m so glad I found this channel. Chloe, I absolutely love your work. Your tireless dedication to what you do shows in the quality of your content. I subscribe to a ton of channels. There are a small handful of whom I make DAMN sure I get those notifications… You’re one of them! Thanks so much for everything you do. You actually helped me get over my debilitating fear of flying so, I will be a fan forever!! ✈️☺️🖤

[@Flies2FLL]

-Flaps do increase the area of the wing yes, but primarily they increase the effective camber. And thus increase coefficient of lift. Lift = 1/2 r V2 S Cl, where r is air density, V2 is the velocity squared, S is wing area, and Cl is coefficient of lift. Adding flaps adds a little S but a whole lot of Cl. Which means that V2 can now be reduced from cruise speed to landing speed with the same lift being generated....

[@awuma]

I often here that wing size misconception regarding flaps... kids don't build model planes any more, don't know about camber.

[@Flies2FLL]

@@awuma When I was building RC model airplanes at the age of 13 I sometimes stopped working on them for 10 minutes in my bedroom because something in my pants was getting a whole lot larger than it had ever been before, like 20 cm long. So size does indeed count~

[@stephenboitoult8774]

Thanks for this light on a not well remembered crash. I was only 13 at the time and COULD have been at Heathrow when it happened as I was an inveterate plane spotter and habitual inhabitant of the spotters enclosure. But I was at school and missed it. My mum also worked for BEA at that time and I well remember the fuss around Papa-India's fate in Staines. Even so I was shocked when you mentioned the recommissioning of the damaged aircraft and, 50 years later, the callsign Papa India rose unbidden into my mind even before the sequence zoomed in to highlight it!

[@sarahmacintosh6449]

Thanks for another great vid, Chloe! Always stoked when your channel pops up in my feed 😁

[@57Jimmy]

A very good report on yet another less known accident. And as a double whammy, this is the first I’ve heard about the Trident that crashed being the same one that was damaged by this episodes aircraft! Great work!!👍🇨🇦

[@skunkrat01]

Wow what an interesting story. Expertly told as always. I never dreamed of a plane completely renovated to just carry horses, but it does sound like some crazy rich guy thing

[@anna_in_aotearoa3166]

Really appreciate the accessible technical explanations Chloé! Your clarification of what flaps actually do was new to me, and really interesting.

[@VHKDK]

I can remember seeing the footage on the BBC evening news that evening but I didn't realise until your video that the plane was attempting a go around. A very interesting video with the twist in the tail concerning the Trident involved in the Staines accident. Not sure if you have done this one but have you considered doing a video covering the accident involving BOAC flight 712 G-ARWE at Heathrow? An amazing survival story as well as the bravery of stewardess Barbara Harrison.

[@brianmuhlingBUM]

I love the graphics in your vision. They are so well done. Your narration is excellent, very clear, not hurried, and no loud, excessive and annoying music. Thank you. 😊

[@oilfan9445]

Holy hell, the ending of the video blew my mind. Great video as always and thank you for enlightening us plane nerds

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

Great Video, as always, Chloe!!! Only even more awesome of you to find footage of the incident, itself... You might find it interesting that there's some footage (largely archival from the USCG of the time, but I've seen several clips online) from the Pan Am Flight 6 Ocean Ditching in 1956. Whether or not you were inclined to include any or all footage of it, I'd be interested in your take on the matters. It's kinda famous for being the first ever oceanic ditching where EVERYBODY lived. It also concerns a prop-driven Boeing 377 Stratocruiser, so a bit of an obscure plane to hunt down, BUT I'm sure we'd understand a bit of a shift in visual aids, and you might have some fun finding whatever you can. It's a neat old plane. IN any case, this disaster reminded me of that one... mostly from the few odd clips I've seen shot from a nearby Coast Guard vessel and kept all these years. You always do such a great job hunting down the details and researching to truly understand the incidents you choose. Good hunting!!! ;o)

[@jonyjoe8464]

The flap breaking down in the worst time possible, the pilots had no way to save the aircraft and crew/horses. I think as soon as the landing gear touch the ground the pilots should have just done a crash landing instead of trying to do a go around, it would have been less catastrophic. The trident plane damaged and repaired that crashed later but it wasn't due to the repairs, it crashed due to pilot imcompetence , they retracted the flaps too early and stalled it.

[@Alan316100]

I could tell you so much more about BKS/Northeast, which was an excellent airline using, certainly in the early days, mostly ex RAF pilots. The pilot of the plane in question, Ernie Hand, was one of those and a well above average pilot, and I would also note that his 'clearance' of not being in any way to blame for the crash was just about the fastest clearance ever by the CAA. I might also point out that when taken over by BEA, for the first few weeks the Northeast pilots regularly had issues over signing for the aircraft becasue they were not up to the maintenance standards they were used to! But, it was all a long time ago and just about all those pilots and 1st officers are long gone now and flying for a much safer airline 🙂.

[@boeing777pilot5]

Another great video as always Chloe! A quick question for you, do you only make videos about incidents where the plane crashes/has fatalities, or do you cover incidents the situation is resolved and the aircraft land safely?

[@DisasterBreakdown]

Last week we did a Disaster Averted video, death count or fatalities had no bearing on whether or not I make a video on it. if I find it to be an interesting case and people want to see it then i can put it on my list to get made

[@anna_in_aotearoa3166]

Really appreciate the inclusion of your Disaster Averted vids! It helps psychologically balance the tragedy of the worst disasters, but IMO near misses can also be just a valuable source of learnings, especially as the flight crews are able to provide first-person testimony of their experiences, actions, & thoughts/decisions?

[@boeing777pilot5]

@@DisasterBreakdown ok, cool. My suggestion would be the 1978 Cessna 188 pacific rescue. A Cessna 188 was on a delivery journey from the USA to Australia. On one leg of the journey the pilot got lost flying over the pacific due to a piece of navigation equipment failing and was eventually located and saved by an Air New Zealand DC-10, fight 103. The Cessna landed safely on Norfolk Island after flying for over 23 hours. Another interesting thing about this incident was the Flight Engineer on flight 103, Gordon Brooks, who was unfortunately killed less than a year later in the crash of Air New Zealand flight 901 on Mount Erebus.

[@DiecastPowderCoating]

Fantastic video once again. That was a very sad accident

[@kimgarrard2570]

I was due to be admitted to Hillingdon hospital that afternoon but was sent home as they had to deal with injured people from this crash

[@cheirodonnoe4465]

Great video as always. Being a racing fan, are the names of the 8 racehorses recorded anywhere? I would like to know who they were and what the loss was to racing and breeding. I looked online but haven’t found anything. Thanks

[@stevemcnair-wilson6106]

What a tragic story, although not so bad as the Munich Air Disaster in 1958 in which a similar plane was involved. Today one last example can be seen at Duxford Air Museum. For those not familiar with this airliner, it was exceptionally beautiful and it was powered by 2 Bristol Centaurus engine, which would start up with a huge puff of smoke and the occasional backfire. Spectacular. In my late teens I worked for Aviation Traders at Southend Airport and was familiar with these, DC 3's, Curtiss Commando's and a raft of aircraft long forgotten, including our own ATL 98 Carvair. and BAF's Bristol Superfreighters.

[@odenviking]

thanks for uploading this video. i have had not heard about this accident . 👍👍👍🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪

[@pops2728]

I have not heard of this accident before. I remember the Manchester United crash which was an Airspeed Ambassador. I was coming home from school when I saw the headlines in the evening papers. I am eighty years old and love aviation. I flew to Majorca on an Ambassador in 1959, 1961, 62, 63, and 64. Dan Air mainly. I could have flown on this one! A very noisy plane inside. I remember it used to fly around the Pyrenees Mountains instead of over them. I have been to see the Dan Air one at Duxford and it brought back some great memories.

[@Clementinewoofwoof]

Hot damn, I can’t believe there’s actually footage of it

[@MUHAMMADLUQMANAIDIDBINRONISARI]

Your narrative is very good btw

[@anantr99]

The Viscount was also lost in 1975 in a crash at Phnom Penh International Airport. The pilot was unqualified to fly the plane, having forged his credentials. He ended up losing control of the aircraft during a landing. The crash killed all four occupants of the aircraft and ended up damaging a parked Cessna 172 beyond repair.

[@royfearn4345]

I well remember this disaster along with details of the failure of the port flap actuator due to metal fatigue. Thank you for reminding me.

[@nyxqueenofshadows]

i sort of peripherally knew about this (or, more specifically that william hill was related to a plane crash) but it's interesting to get the full details! great video, as always :)

[@erictaylor5462]

8:30 This is not true. Not all aircraft have flaps. Several models of aircraft, such as the Taylor/Piper J-3 Cub don't have flaps because they don't need there. As you move down in size and performance you have a situation of diminishing returns. At some point the flaps simply don't make enough difference to be worth it.

[@billygdj]

This haunted me as a 10 year old when I saw it on the night time news and I'll never forget it. We lived near Glasgow Airport and about a year before this I had witnessed a BEA Viscount accident when it over ran the runway and crashed into a field with no loss of life. Ambassadors were common at Glasgow , Autair , BKS , Dan Air etc so to see this really shook me up knowing there had been fatalities.

[@lesoswald324]

I was an Air Scout in Newcastle, where BKS were the main commercial operator at the as-then Woolsington Airport. Most of my weekends were spent there and we would trade doing small jobs in exchange for flights or simply visiting aircraft or other facilities. Once, we helped carry new seats out, which were being replaced on G-AMAD, when it was mainly flying the Heathrow to Newcastle route. I was quite shocked when I learned that an aeroplane which I saw almost weekly, had crashed. I recall that BKS had two more ex-BEA Ambassadors in service back then.

[@gauthamsunil1780]

And one final thing( I feel like I’m getting to annoying now but) there was that other Viscount that was damaged. In Wikipedia, it says that aircraft also got into an accident in Cambodia. I don’t think there is a lot of information on it.

[@desdicadoric]

1968! Looked like ancient history, and I was alive then, just. Damn

[@noahthesarcastictd]

That trident has to be one of the unluckiest plane ive ever heard about. The plane was in a crash and was repaired to later crash as BEA 548. Ironically the tail broke in the first incident yet in the accident, it survived...

[@jamesgraham6122]

Amazing, I have no memory of that accident in spite of living close to Heathrow and later becoming a pilot. I would have been 20 yrs old at that time and thought I knew just about everything that had happened and was happening at Heathrow. A reminder of just how quickly things can go tragically wrong, one crew land the plane, no problems, off home or to the hotel, the next crew get airborne and suffers a fatal failure of some essential item. The lottery of life.

[@darkfox2076]

Great video again chloe.

[@DisasterBreakdown]

Thank you!

[@british.scorpion]

Interesting information, thank you.

[@DisasterBreakdown]

Thanks for watching!

[@erictaylor5462]

13:00 The sad part is, the pilot made the correct choice here, given what the pilot knew. If you can't stabilize your approach with the aircraft at the right speed, in the correct position and configured for landing, or if the approach should become unstable at some point the pilot is trained to abandon the approach and go around. The most common cause for what the pilot is experiencing is wake turbulence. Wake turbulence can induce an uncommented bank. I would bet good money that the pilot believed he had hit wake turbulence and died still thinking that.

[@buckodonnghaile4309]

Informative comment, cheers.

[@jacekatalakis8316]

Ohhh, I knew this as the William Hill crash. Quite a lot of older folks in the horse racing world now this one, but don't know the plane or airline or such, they just know it due to William Hil's involvement, and you probably coverd this, I'm a few moments in, but one of the Tridents would go on to be BEA 548, which is a spooky coincidence really.

[@shoob7979]

It sucks that anyone/horses died in this crash but it was somewhat of a silver lining that no one on the ground including the construction workers were not further casualties in such a horrible accident

[@johniksushibar165]

As someone who was born and lived not far from Heathrow airport, i have never heard about that crash before, when the trident went down, i was fishing with friends near Staines and only found out about that one when i got home.

[@ihatemegatron216]

Quick correction. The high lift devices that extended from the leading edge of a wing are not flaps, they are slats. Flaps are only on the trailing edge.

[@JamesAllen-k6g]

I enjoy your movies very much: they are authoritative, clear, impartial, balanced and intelligent, and beautifully narrated. I admire you for your trans journey and I offer you my best wishes. Stay true to yourself, and keep producing quality videos.

[@ThePuschkin1986]

when I clicked the video, I was prepared for people dying during the crash, but HORSES too?!😟

[@geoffhunter7704]

A neighbour worked for this Airline i am sure the names were Berkeley,Kerr and Stevens and at least of the Directors were ex RAF our neighbour soon lost his job and another neighbour was BEA Chief Pilot got him a post with BEA that is all i remember as i was in the Army since 1967.

[@geoffhunter7704]

Ah well memory plays tricks the Founder/Directors were James Barnby,Thomas Keegan and M Stevens so slap on wrist for being 2/3rds wrong!

[@TheSecurdisc]

A number of the horses actually survived but were destroyed in situs by the on duty Vet at Heathrow Airport. BKS created a 'Blood and Livestock' division for the Company to carry horses and livestock. Two Conversions were carried out at their engineering base at Southend Airport. BKS called them 'Lizzy's'. There is just one survivor of the 20 built which is now at Duxford. Of the founders, Barnaby died young, Keegan moved to British Air Ferries and then onto motor racing and Stevens became the Chairman of British Midland Airways. Although essentially a northern airline (Newcastle) their Engineering base was at Southend. 66 years on their football team BKS Sports still survives in the local Southend borough FC Combination League. I worked for BKS as did all my family before they were absorbed in the British Air Services group (BAS) in 1968.

[@eugeneoreilly9356]

Nice bit of additional history.

[@noondayx2011]

Quality content as per usual

[@cherylschantz9893]

Those poor horses! They had no choice of being on the flight.

[@kornazov4]

Excellent Video! Thanks!

[@johnjephcote7636]

They were being tested during my first holiday at Fairlight, c. 1949 or 1950. I never liked the 'plane; there was something about the design that just seemed wrong. There was a Tyne Ambassador but turboprops were not generally fitted tho' Handley-Page's Herald had the Dart to upgrade it. Strangely enough, though I was living under one of Heathrow's stacking areas and we also took the London Evening News (as it then was) I do not recall this crash..

[@SinaLaJuanaLewis]

excellent job on this! what a plot twist too😮

[@stevenkrupka3670]

Great content, very professional channel.👌

[@e.scottdaugherty8291]

OK, the tie in between the 2 incidents with that aircraft was too creepy.

[@Aperson340m]

This proves how fatal some of these small mistakes can be.

[@theapplecraft1672]

Well seeing in the comment that some people say the viscount involved in this accident also gotten into another accident, is freaking me out. that 2 aircraft involved in this accident (trident and viscount) gotten in to another accident that kill lot people

[@r.o.1330]

.....my wife was looking into getting me a ride on a vintage WW2 aircraft for a present. I thanked her, but said no thanks for this very reason.

[@robertbandusky9565]

Beautiful aircraft! Corrosion probably played a part o this disaster? Similar to Lockheed Constellation 🇺🇸

[@charlotteinnocent8752]

Wow that Trident was really jinxed wasn't it? I feel really bad for the pilots. Who knows if they hadn't performed a go around they might have lived, but a go around was the SAFE and PRUDENT option for the weirdness they experienced on trying to land. They thought they were doing the right thing and with the limited knowledge they had, they were. They can't have known. So hard on them!

[@sunnyfon9065]

Damn, what a horrifying footage

[@guyseeten2755]

'The failure occurred only just a few moments from when they were expected to touch down, it couldn't have occurred at a worst point in the flight.' The left side landing gear touched the grass and the pilots decided to execute a go around. I don't agree, I think it was the best moment for this failure to occur. It was a normal reaction to execute a go around, they are trained to do so. But chances are everybody would have survived if the pilots had accepted a hard landing and a damaged airplane and slammed the brakes. It probably would have come to a complete stop without crashing.

[@X_mezo_X]

As mentioned in the video, the pilots were caught off-guard ,were under heavy pressure, and couldn't properly think of it the same way we're able to think about this incident 50 years after it happened,

[@Brian-kl1zu]

@@X_mezo_X It's a "what if" question.

[@pelnapkins4379]

Thanks for detailing this event. Do you think you could do a video on the Trident (G-ARPY) test flight crash in 1966?

[@gusmc01]

Really unfortunate event, just no way for the flight crew to know what was happening. If they had only just landed it on the grass when the left wheel touched down, instead of trying a go around....

[@Dovietail]

The past tense of "bear witness" is "BORE witness" rather than "beared witness." 😊

[@lyedavide]

The worst possible failure at the worst possible time. I don't think the weather conditions would have made much difference. I'm astonished that anymore survived at all.

[@kellylingro3288]

It's always more sad for me when i know animals were on board

[@joannegaughan6132]

For me as well. All the people chose to be on that plane, but the horses didn't, they had no choice, and I'm sure they were even more terrified than the humans.😢

[@matthewc7334]

I saw this aircraft on the approach from my parents' house in Kingston. I was also listening to the Tower on 118.2 - aircraft landing 28L or 28R went out of my sight at the outer marker. Then I heard the next aircraft to land seeing mention smoke on the ground ahead...

[@brookwimbury8342]

I remember this BKS accident and the subsequent BEA Trident crass in Staines.

[@markjennings2315]

I flew aircraft based at Heathrow and have never heard of this event. The Trident flight I certainly have heard about though.

[@JTA1961]

Now I understand why the plane became...un"stable"

[@rogerrendzak8055]

But, what caused the Trident crash, at the end of the video?? Was it because of the repairs, done to the plane, previously???

[@nexforreal]

It's crazy how G-ARPI, one of the Tridents impacted by the crash had crashed years later with no survivors.

[@DannoAviation]

So one of the Trident’s that got hit during this accident was actually the ill-fated Trident that crashed by Staines Bypass? Wow.

[@thomassharp2719]

This plane looks like a mini Lockheed Constellation.

[@Joyce_Aneila]

the one trident has cheated death, but death came back to get it years later

[@terryandjanicewillis470]

Loved the video, but one tiny niggle. The Airspeed Ambassadors flaps did not increase wing area, the way that modern airliners flaps do when they trundle out on tracks. These modern ones are called Fowler Flaps. The Ambassador had Split Flaps, which means that the flaps, mounted on the underside of the wings, merely hinged when moved by the actuator, although the top surface of the wing , above the flap, does not move. It does mean that great stress is placed upon the actuator when forcing the flaps to move against the air loading, which led to the fatigue failure. Having grown up in West London, where many worked at Heathrow,, I recall that a friend's father was working on the construction of Terminal One on the day of the accident. I look forward to your future videos, whatever the frequency.

[@None-zc5vg]

Fowler flaps were in use in the '30s; see the film of Chamberlain flying to Munich.

[@jawavartenuk6770]

Shout out to “I Found Your Cheetos”, from “Where are my Cheetos”! Another great video, as always!

[@Dovietail]

People don't like to think about this crash because of the horses that died. Adults have agency and choose to be on flights. Children and animals do not. It's an additional--and unbearable--level of tragedy.

[@FreethoughtsOnline]

I flew on a Dan Air Elizabethan flight from Gatwick - Dusseldorf and return in 1970...no problems I'm glad to say.

[@mjc8281]

This reminds me of BEA411 at Manchester Airport(Ringway) that you did a video on a year or so ago.

[@laurachapple6795]

This may sound weird, but thank you for saying what happened to the horses. That would have bugged me.

[@RO-pd2nn]

Great video. 👍

[@JJHandle001]

What flight sim are you using to make your videos?

[@robinsattahip2376]

The Airspeed Ambassador was the same type involved in the February 1958 Munich Air Disaster involving the Manchester United Football Team. A fine piece of engineering, kind of the Boeing Max of its day.