Forty years ago today

[David Hilditch]

....an Aer Lingus Viscount crashed into the Irish Sea on a flight from Cork to London. For those who are interested in air accidents from a different period, this has always been an intriguing one. You had an in-flight upset in the climb, a recovery at a lower level for 15-20 minutes during which time the aircraft apparently flew low-ish level out of contact with anyone, and then a final fatal upset and crash into the sea, taking 61 people with it. In those pre-CVR and pre-FDR days many accidents were never solved, which sometimes led to either interesting speculation or the usual conspiracy explanations. This accident was also the subject of a renewed inquiry around 10 years ago, which is linked here :

http://www.aaiu.ie/aviation/aaiu/1968%2 ... 20page.htm

Summary details : http://aviation-safety.net/database/rec ... 19680324-0

This was Aer Lingus's worst accident, and the last fatal one for the airline.

[Half Bottle]

Thanks, David, very interesting.


From the second link:

Speculation has continued since the time of the accident, prompted by a hypothesis posed in the Report, that the Viscount may have been initially upset by the possible presence of another airborne object, drone or missile in its vicinity at the time. On the 30th anniversary of the accident, following newspaper articles and television programmes focusing on the possible involvement of U.K ships and missile ranges on the Welsh Coast in the downing of the aircraft, it was decided that Irish and U.K. officials would review all files held relating to the accident to see if the cause of the accident could be established. It was a.o. concluded that "the possibility of a cause other than a (near) collision with another airborne object being the initial cause of the upset .. .. does not appear to have been adequately examined in the 1970 Report." Following the review, in July 2000, the Irish Minister for Public Enterprise commissioned this independent study of the accident circumstances. The Study Conclusions, although not an Annex 13 ICAO format, indicate that:
(a) There was no other airborne object, missile, or drone in the vicinity of the upset.
(b) The flight path, supported by a mix of 46 new and previous witnesses, cannot be reconciled with two alleged transmissions from the crew at 10.51 GMT and at 10.57 GMT i.e. “Level at 170”, shown in transcripts.
(c) Some maintenance compliance periods were exceeded by a factor of four e.g.ss jobs called at 1,400 flying hours although due at 350 hours.
(d) There was a conflict of interest in the original 1970 Report inasmuch as the person in charge of that Report was also the same man who authorized the C of A renewal for EI-AOM shortly before the crash, despite the fact that the paperwork for the ‘2.04’ Inspection was missing and remains lost
(e) The initial upset occurred circa 10.40 hours GMT at about FL90 during the climb above the village of Old Parish in County Waterford. The aircraft was recovered from the dive and flew an erratic path inland until 10.58 GMT when there was a second spin or spiral dive from which the crew also recovered the aircraft. Total loss of control then occurred some minutes later near Tuskar Rock.

That sounds remarkably like it could have come straight from the files of the missle theory and TWA 800. What would David say? Plus ça change?