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Aviation History
1969
1969 - 0100.PDF
82 AIR TRANSPORT... EAGLE VISCOUNT CRASH CAUSE GERMAN sources apparently "leaked" last week the substance of the report on the accident to British Eagle Viscount G-ATFN on August 9, 1968, in order to counteract reports that the accident had been caused by ATC deficiencies. The official report is. not expected for several months but it is understood that the accident was caused by a complete electrical failure, although officially West Germany later denied that electrical failure was the sole cause. Unlike the system in the majority of Viscount 700s the Eagle aircraft (ex-United Arab) had a basic electrical system which comprised four generators, two inverters and only one bus-bar. The sequence of events in G-ATFN has been recon structed from the Penny & Giles flight recorder evidence, which is reasonably complete despite the massive disintegra tion of the wire-recording medium. As it happened the flight recorder had been fitted with a frequency recording device (used by Penny & Giles for their own purposes) and from the trace of the frequency level it can be seen that it tails off gradually for a period of some 25min before dropping sharply. From this it is deduced that a generator failed nearly half an hour before the crash and its failure went unnoticed by the crew. The warning light is above and behind the co-pilot's head. The other three gen erators also tripped, and again, the warning lights appear to have gone unnoticed. For some 25min the aircraft flew on with its essential electrical services under battery power. First failure would be radio signals, followed quickly by booster pumps and instruments. Thus the crew had only ASI and slip-ball for guidance in the clouds. The aircraft must have broken cloud, 1,000ft above ground, at high speed and the outer wings were broken off in the subsequent attempt to pull out of a dive. It is understood that as soon as the facts became known (from Penny & Giles and from evidence at the crash site, including inverters, which were stationary at the time of impact) BAC warned all Viscount 700 operators of the nature* of the accident and asked them to re-check their systems. A modification programme is believed to be about to be insti gated on all the aircraft affected. A BAC spokesman said, "We have a total responsibility to our customers as long as there are Viscounts flying." The feeling in the industry is that information of this kind is being disseminated adequately by this informal method rather than by the formal system used in the United States and other countries. A NEW EAGLE? THE reappearance of British Eagle in some modified and scaled-down guise is now a possibility. The airline closed down and went into liquidation on November 6. Mr Harold Bamberg, former chairman of British Eagle, announced last week that he had submitted an application jointly in the names of British Eagle (Liverpool) Ltd and Eagle International Ltd for the air-service licences still held by British Eagle Inter national Airlines (which is in liquidation) and British Eagle (Liverpool) (which is not). Some of these licences cover FLIGHT International, 16 January 1969 routes which have been operated by other airlines under temporary dispensation from the Board of Trade since British Eagle ceased operations. Mr Bamberg says that, together with backers who have not yet been named, he will put up the necessary capital to provide BAC One-Elevens, Britannia freighters, aircrew and administrative staff. These will be used to operate a scheduled network and to promote cargo services. But the provision of this capital will be entirely dependent on the award of licences by the Air Transport Licensing Board to the two Eagle companies mentioned. One of these companies, Eagle International Ltd, is at present dormant; it is understood to have been constituted during the past year, but has not traded. All the British Eagle group air operators' certificates were suspended by the Board of Trade after the closure (the Liver pool company, although not liquidated, has no aircraft of its own). There should not, however, be any particular difficulty in this direction as soon as BoT is satisfied with the opera tional fitness of a reconstituted Eagle airline. The main problem appears to be the licensing question, to be thrashed out before the ATLB later this month; a large number of" applications have been filed to take over the Eagle licences, and any effort by an Eagle company to revive them after a break in operations is likely to be hotly opposed. Whatever the form of the reconstituted airline, it will be a much smaller and more compact company than BEIA. But if it is able to select the cream of the BEIA licences, it could become a fully viable unit. The liquidator of the Eagle companies has approved the moves by Mr Bamberg, and will be the vendor of the Britannias to the new airline. He is still deeply involved in the liquidation of BEIA, of which the excess of liabilities over assets was initially put at about £6 million. Viscount Break-up Cause? Fatigue failure in the starboard wing may be the cause of the break-up of the Viscount near Port Hedland, Western Australia, on December 31 (see last week's issue, page 52). The five 700s in Australia remained grounded last week pending discussions with BAC representa tives and inspectors. Two High-ground Accidents There were no survivors among the 21 passengers and four crew of a Servicios Aereos Especiales DC-3 (XA-SAE) which hit Eagle's Peak while on a flight from Reynosa to Tampico, Mexico, on the night of December 31.- On January 2 a China Air Lines DC-3 hit Mt Paku, southern Formosa, soon after taking off from Taitung for Kaohsiung. All 19 passengers and the crew of five were killed. Cause for Coincidence? A second accident, almost exactly similar to that on December 24, occurred on January 6 at Bradford, Pennsylvania. Again an Allegheny Airlines Convair 580 was involved. Both were making instrument approaches in snow at night and both aircraft cartwheeled. In the second accident 11 out of the 28 on board were killed, including the pilot and co-pilot, and 17 injured (see last week's issue, page 52). The similarities seem to be too close for coincidence. The first Boeing 747, which is due to make its initial flight this month, has its compass system calibrated on the pre-flight line at Everett. The main undercarriage of four eight- wheeled units was mounted on an air-cushion turntable and the nosegear on a separate cushion to permit a 360-deg swing
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