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1934 London, Scottish & Provincial Airways Airspeed Courier crash

1934 crash caused by pilot error

Field	Value
name	1934 London, Scottish & Provincial Airways Airspeed Courier crash
occurrence_type	Accident
image	Airspeed AS5.jpg
image_size	250
alt	Photograph of an Airspeed Courier
caption	An Airspeed Courier, similar to the accident aircraft.
date	29 September 1934.
summary	Pilot error (loss of control due to disorientation in cloud)
site	Timberden Bottom, Shoreham, Kent, United Kingdom.
aircraft_type	Airspeed Courier.
operator	London, Scottish & Provincial Airways Ltd.
tail_number	G-ACSY
origin	Heston Aerodrome, Middlesex, United Kingdom.
destination	Le Bourget Airport, Paris France.
passengers	3
crew	1
injuries	2 (on ground)
fatalities	4
survivors	0

On 29 September 1934, an Airspeed Courier of London, Scottish & Provincial Airways Ltd crashed just north of Shoreham, Kent. The aircraft was on a scheduled international passenger flight from Heston Aerodrome west of London to Le Bourget Airport, Paris. All four people on board were killed. Two people were injured by flying debris.

Aircraft

The accident aircraft was Airspeed Courier G-ACSY, c/n 16. The aircraft had been registered on 17 May 1934, The aircraft was on loan from Airspeed.

Accident

The aircraft took off from Hounslow Aerodrome at around 17:00 on a scheduled international passenger flight to Le Bourget Airport, Paris France. It flew into an isolated storm over north west Kent. An eyewitness reported seeing the aircraft emerge from the clouds in a vertical dive. The cloudbase was at an altitude of 1200 ft and the hills around Shoreham reached an elevation of 600 ft. The aircraft crashed just north of Shoreham in Timberden Bottom, at the bottom of Cockerhurst Road. All four people on board were killed, Two women walking in the vicinity of the accident were injured when they were struck by flying debris.

An inquest into the accident was held at Sevenoaks on 2 October. The victims were identified by documentation and personal belongings as they had received injuries which made visual identification "extremely difficult, if not impossible". Evidence was given that the aircraft was not operating anywhere near its maximum take-off weight of 4000 lb and that it had been airworthy on departure from Heston. The pilot, Ronald Smith (26) from Ealing, was an experienced former Royal Air Force pilot. He had 1,500 hours flying time, of which 150 hours were on the Heston-Paris route.

A memorial cross was installed near the crash site on Cockerhurst Road but after it was vandalised it was removed to Shoreham churchyard, by the north west corner of the tower.

References

Sources

References

"Civil Aircraft Register - Great Britain, Page 6". Golden Years of Aviation.
"Heston". Flight.
(1 October 1934). "Four Killed in Air Crash".
(4 June 2009). "Air crash mystery". Eastern Daily Press.
"The Shoreham Accident". Flight.
(3 October 1934). "Kent Air Crash Inquest".

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.

aviation-accidents-and-incidents-in-1934 aviation-accidents-and-incidents-in-kent 1934-in-england 1934-disasters-in-the-united-kingdom september-1934-in-the-united-kingdom

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