Plane Crash photo. British European Airways 1972 city

18 1972 year in June. In London airport "Heathrow" crew board 548 «British European Airways» completes the preparation for the flight to Brussels. At Captain Stanley Keya was supposed to be a day off, but he was called at the last minute. He is a former pilot of the Royal Air Force and one of the best pilots of the airline. On board passengers 112, Many of them businessmen. They value their time, and the flight of a jet liner «Trident» had to take only 45 minutes.

Expert: «Trident» was much faster screw and turboprop aircraft. It halves the time of the flight to Europe, which gave us a huge economic benefits. Pilots also loved to fly on this plane.

            For this aircraft were needed 3 pilot. Jeremy Keegley is the co-pilot of the 548. Simon Taysferst helps to monitor the devices. Between captain Kay and two other crew members there was a 30 years difference. This caused a conflict of generations. They considered the captain a grumpy old man, and he looked at them as irresponsible youths.

Plane Crash Photo

            "Trident" got its name because of the three engines "Rolls Royce", located in its tail section. When accelerating, the pilots take the engine power to maximum. The plane can not take off until it picks up speed 257 km / h. While the plane is accelerating along the lane, the co-pilot looks closely at the time. This is part of the special procedure under the noise reduction program over populated areas. After take-off, reaching a certain altitude, they must drop the gas to reduce engine noise. The airport employees measure the noise level in 90 seconds after take-off. If the pilots do not follow the instructions, they will be credited with a puncture. During climb, passengers experience shaking. Nothing surprising. That day the wind was impetuous, and from this there is a "chatter". The second pilot of the Kigli is preparing to reset engine speed. If he does it too soon, the plane will not be able to gain altitude.

Expert: The engines react with a delay. Therefore, you can reduce the power of coincidence more than you need. It needs some time to stabilize the operation of the engines.

            Keighley reduces engine power in time. The plane has already scored 450 meters. The procedure completed successfully. But at the moment when the pilots get permission to climb higher, the plane begins to lose altitude. The speed began to fall very quickly, and they began to fall. The plane crashed in a field, just meters from the city of Staines.

Witness: I was sitting at home when she heard a loud thud. If the plane flew on 45 meters further, it would fall to the center of Staines. I ran to the plane.

            First to the crash site came running a nurse named Francis. Almost everyone died, but Francis tried to help one of the survivors. Unfortunately, the injuries to the men were too serious, and he soon died. No one survived. All passengers and crew 112 548 board were killed.

Expert: It was scary. It was the worst plane crash in British history. "British European Airways"(BEA) At the time it was considered a company that does not happen accidents. But now it happened.

            The news of the fall of the 548 BEA board quickly became major throughout the country. Therefore, investigators from the accident investigation department of the UK immediately began their work. 

Photo plane crash

Investigator: When I arrived at the crash site, rescue work has been conducted. It was full of people.

            The investigators who worked at the crash site turned their attention to one unusual thing. In most cases, in the fall, the plane of inertia drags on after hitting the ground. In this case, everything was different. The tail lay near the place of impact on the ground. The remaining fragments were scattered no more than in 45 meters, which is very small for such a large aircraft. Many explained the power lines. They were intact, not far from the crash site.

Investigator: If you bypass the tail of the aircraft and look back up, and then you could see the high voltage cables. And it says that the plane was down at a steep angle. He has not touched the cables.

            Intact wires and a crash site indicated that the 548 board dropped suddenly and at a large angle. It was a sure sign of stalling.

Expert: A stall occurs when an aircraft is flying too slowly to under his wings was the air flow, providing lift.

            The plane enters the stall for various reasons: From engine failure to pilot error. Experts studied the wreckage to find the cause of the stall. Any little thing could be the key to guessing. An additional difficulty was created by the fact that in 1972 in the UK the installation of voice recorders in the cab was not necessary. The investigators had only information from the flight data recorders. It took time to process this information. The remaining wreckage of the aircraft was carefully labeled and sent to the head office of the Farnborough incident investigation department. There the plane had to be reassembled, like pieces of a puzzle. This process could take months. At the same time, it was necessary to conduct an investigation as quickly as possible. After all, if something is wrong with the "Trident", it threatened the safety of passengers.

Expert: You also need to be taken into account that «Trident» was completely British. On it were the British engines. For industry, it was very important to determine what is wrong with him, and take appropriate action.

            Weather data could give the first clues. Around the 48 km, there was a cold front. Also attended moderate turbulence. When bad weather storm clouds sometimes create powerful columns of air that push the aircraft to the ground.

Expert: The plane just took off and was quite low. At low altitude stall especially dangerous, as the pilots do not have time to correct the situation.

            Investigators wanted to know how difficult the weather conditions at Heathrow were when the 548 board took off. Weather reports showed that the turbulence was not strong enough to affect the aircraft in this way.

            By that time, data became available from the flight recorders of the aircraft. Investigators focused on engine data. They looked for signs of fire or failure. A sudden loss of traction could explain the stall. But the data showed that the engines worked perfectly. "Trident" gained height with enough brakes to maintain a safe speed. The failure of the engines led to a drop in the 548 board.

photo from the crash site

            In the main office of the investigation department, the experts grouped the wreckage of the aircraft. When checking recreated systems, investigators could tell whether there was a defective part or mechanism in the aircraft that led to the stall. Soon they noticed something. Lever that regulates the position slatsHe was in the retracted position. Slats were to be cleaned only when the plane gathered speed sufficient to lift without them. If one of the pilots of the slats removed too early, it could lead to a dangerous stall the aircraft. This discovery has puzzled investigators.

Investigator: How can someone could remove the control lever slats? And no one saw how it happened. That makes no sense.

            When looking at the lever it was impossible to determine whether it was removed by the crew, or moved from the spot in the fall. Also he could move during the rescue operation. After investigating the wreckage, the investigators determined that the slats had been removed by the crew. The most terrible incident in the history of Great Britain was caused by a pilot error.

            This raised a whole avalanche of questions about the mental and physical condition of the crew. If the crew dies, an autopsy is always performed. The simplest thing that the experts wanted to find out was whether it was alcohol or drugs in the pilots' blood. While the pathologists were looking for physical causes, the investigators studied the pilots' personal files. It was necessary to evaluate the actions of the crew. They drew attention to the file captain. He had an impeccable reputation. He was a very experienced pilot and flew a lot on the "Trident". His heights from Heathrow were almost always flawless. But on the day of the disaster, he acted differently. Departing from the airport the captain flew the plane at a slower speed than normal.

Investigator: Flying at a lower speed was very dangerous. The plane speed is needed to create lift. This means that close to the ground control of the aircraft require high precision.

            Usually, the actions of the captain met the standards, but that day they did not answer them. Also, investigators drew attention to one piece of the cockpit. It was a small table. On this table was scrawled something like graffiti. Humorous comments from the pilot sitting next to him. It was written on the table: “Kay must go,” and below are some dismissive comments. These inscriptions pointed to differences in the crew.

Perhaps the voltage led to the cockpit that the pilot has been difficult to operate correctly. Table-shirts sent to a handwriting analysis to find out who made them. Meanwhile, investigators have asked other pilots of the airline captain and his crew. They found that while airline staff were preparing to strike. Most pilots wanted to strike, while Captain Kay maintained leadership. He He considered irresponsible young drivers and pampered. Just a few hours before the flight to Brussels, it is very strongly quarreled with one pilot about this strike. The dispute was so violent that investigators have begun to believe that the institution of capital prevented him control the plane.

            Although “Trident” was not equipped with a voice recorder, negotiations between the dispatcher and the crew were recorded. Listening to these records, the investigators noticed that the captain’s voice was terribly calm. His replicas are so short that It does not meet any standards of aviation.

photos of air crashes

Expert: Normally, when a permit, you need to completely repeat the text of the call and call the aircraft. None of this was.

            Such responses were not characteristic of such a mandatory captain. Obviously, he was very concerned and felt the strain. The results of the handwriting analysis were ready, however, they yielded nothing. The handwriting in the inscription did not coincide with the handwriting of the pilots from that crew. It was a dead end.

            In search of clues, they explored the Trident booth and found out one feature. The levers for cleaning the slats and flaps are almost identical. Pilots often confused them. Due to the tense situation in the cabin and the noise reduction procedure, they could easily remove the slats too soon. Investigators read hundreds of reports from other Trident flights and found out that there were already instances when pilots mistakenly pulled the lever slats. Investigators began to think that the captain of the dispute before departure had to do with the crash. The real reason could be a bad design levers.

            However, the autopsy pilots sent experts quite differently. It showed that the captain had serious problems with the coronary vessels. He suffered from heart disease. Pathologists believed that Captain Keya, approximately two hours before the crash, had developed heart failure. After the stress caused by the dispute over the disease began to appear. This version explained the unusual replica of Captain during the radio.

Expert: Pain due to clogging of blood vessels could worsen to such an extent that the captain could be partially or totally incapacitated. If his blood pressure was high because of the excitement - it could affect its validity. His condition could affect the concentration and the ability to think logically.

            However, one important question remained. If the captain felt bad, why other pilots did not notice his mistakes and do not attempt to translate the slats in the correct position? Investigators drew attention to the personal files of the pilots who flew with the captain Keyem. They learned that due to the strike in the company, the training of pilots was interrupted. Both pilots on the flight 548 were very inexperienced.

Investigator: The pilot, who was sitting in the right seat, was less 30 flight hours in «Trident». It is obvious that the pilots were too young and had no experience.

            Apparently, they simply did not know what to do. In addition, the co-pilot witnessed the captain's quarrel a few hours before departure. Of course, this did not inspire confidence. The co-pilot would rather make mistakes himself than correct the captain's mistakes.

            The investigators had another mystery. "Trident" is equipped with a security system known as the "shaking wheel automat". If the speed of the plane fell too much, the steering wheel began to shake warning pilots about stalling. Also, it was provided for "automatic recoil handle." If the pilots did not respond to a dangerous situation, the system itself moved the controls to ensure that the aircraft would pick up speed. Experts studied the flight data of the 548 board. "Automatic recoil handles" worked, however, he He remains in the desired position for too little time. Amazingly, one of the pilots has disabled the security system, apparently believing that it did not work correctly.

Expert: By disabling the "automatic handle recoil", they deprived themselves of the opportunity to exit the stall mode automatically, and the plane continued to fall. After that, they were doomed, since the plane did not have enough height to get out of this regime.

            It became clear that the collapse of the bead 548 BEA was the result of a tragic combination of circumstances. The strike, which led to a quarrel. Heart failure, confusion in arms control and the pilots who were too inexperienced to make the correct action when things went wrong. All this is equally affected by the situation.

            After investigating this catastrophe, the levers on the Trident aircraft were changed to avoid confusion. And almost all passenger aircraft began to put voice recorders. Also, more attention was paid to the relationship of the pilots in the cockpit. It is a pity that for this I had to sacrifice the lives of 118 people.

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