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1933 Imperial Airways Ruysselede crash

Aircraft crash

Field	Value
name	1933 Imperial Airways Ruysselede crash
occurrence_type	Accident
image	StateLibQld 1 115976 Star of Cairns, an Avro 619 Five, VH-UNK, ca. 1930.jpg
image_size	250px
caption	An Avro Ten similar to the accident aircraft
date	30 December 1933
summary	Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error
site	Ruysselede, West Flanders, Belgium
coordinates
aircraft_type	Avro Ten
aircraft_name	Apollo
operator	Imperial Airways
tail_number	G-ABLU
origin	Cologne Butzweilerhof Airport, Germany
stopover	Haren Airport, Brussels, Belgium
destination	Croydon Airport, United Kingdom
passengers	8
crew	2
fatalities	10
survivors	0

The 1933 Imperial Airways Ruysselede crash occurred on 30 December 1933 when an Imperial Airways Avro Ten collided with one of the radio masts of Belradio at Ruysselede, West Flanders, Belgium and crashed killing all ten people on board. The aircraft was operating an international scheduled passenger flight from Cologne, Germany to London, England via Brussels, Belgium.

Aircraft

The accident aircraft was Avro Ten registration G-ABLU, c/n 528. The aircraft had entered service with Imperial Airways in May 1931 and having served for a time with Iraq Petroleum Transport Co., it had returned to Imperial Airways. The aircraft was named Apollo.

Accident

Operating a flight from Cologne, Germany to Croydon Airport, United Kingdom via Haren Airport, Brussels, Belgium, the aircraft departed at 12:20 local time (11:20 GMT), which was 20 minutes later than scheduled. As a result of fog, the aircraft was flying on a route to the north of its normal route. At 13:15, it crashed into a guy wire of the 870 ft tall radio mast at Ruysselede, which was illuminated at the time. The top section of the mast was demolished. The aircraft lost a wing and crashed. Four workers at the radio station rushed to the aid of those on board the aircraft, as did twelve villagers from Ruysselede. At least one passenger was seen to have survived the crash. There was an explosion and the wreckage of the aircraft was burnt out. The rescuers all suffered burns.

Casualties

All ten passengers and crew on the aircraft were killed. Four rescuers suffered burns.

Nationality	Crew	Passengers	Total
United Kingdom	2	5	7
Netherlands	–	2	2
Poland	–	1	1
Total	2	8	10

Investigation

The accident was investigated by Belgian authorities. The British Accidents Investigation Branch sent a representative to assist in the investigation.

Awards

The relatives of one of the victims praised the bravery of one of the rescuers, and pressed for him to be rewarded for his courage. King Albert I awarded Camille van Hove the Civic Cross (1st Class) for his efforts in attempting to rescue the victims of the crash. Mr van Hove received serious burns and was still in hospital in Bruges at the time the award was notified. Nine other rescuers were given rewards of money.

References

"Civil Aircraft Register – Great Britain". Golden Years of Aviation.
"Imperial Airways machine crashes in fog". Flight.
(1 January 1934). "Air Crash in Belgium".
(2 January 1934). "Wrecked Air Liner".
(3 January 1934). "Air Crash in Belgium".
"Civil Cross for Ruysselede crash rescuer". Flight.
(20 January 1934). "The Apollo Disaster".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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