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EIGHTY UVES LOST WHEN
TUDOR PLANE CRASHES
Overshot Runway Of Landing
Ground at Cardiff
LONDON, Mar. 12 (Reuter's).-Eighty person» lost their
lives in the world's worst air disaster to-day when an Avro Tudor
packed with football enthusiasts heeled over in mid-air and
ploughed into a field in South Wales. Six seriously injured passen-
gers were dragged from the wreckage, two others staggered to a
nearby farm and a third was found dazed near the shattered plane
murmuring: "Get some help."
Eye-witnesses said that the plane turned over in mid-air
after over-shooting the runway of the Llandown Airport at Car-
diff.
The plane was taking 83 people from Dublin to Cardiff
after the international rugby, match between Wales and Ireland
at Belfast. The. director and operations manager of the firm-that
owned the plane was the Australian-born war-time Pathfinder
hero^-Air Vice-Marshal Donald Bennett, who has been one of
the foremost proponents of the controversial Tudors. The plane
that crashed was a Tudor Mark 5, which normally is equipped
to carry 72 passengers on short journeys, 47 on trans-Atlantic
flights and 50 to other destinations. An earlier type, the Tudor
Mark 4, was grounded by the British Air Ministry in 1948 after
two vanished, over the Atlantic.
PITIFUL SCENES AROUND AIRPORT 1
The "Daily Mail" says: "To-
night thé fields, hedges and
ditches around.' IJandow airport,
at Cardiff, are, strewn with piti-
ful little presents -and trinkets
that - jubilant and triumphant
Welsh Rugby fans were bringing
back from Ireland for friends
and ^relatives. .^-They had been
chonwingj lifrhd of My Fathers'
as they nled into the giant Tudor
^airliner at Dublin. They had
^'jammed, their baggage with food,
nylons, toys and souvenirs for
their.loved ones at home. They
bad even.flown over their own
homes.,- as the mammoth plane
felt its way down for the land-
ing. . . ,
"Now, from all parts of, Wales,
their relatives and friends, white
faced ; and drawn, are; hurrying
'- "to improvised .morgues >.tp. iden-.
-^tify tfiem.' Üóme were- waiting afc
the airfield to' cheer them, out of
the plane they did not see crash.
It happened over the brow of a
hill.
"In twos and threes, the sad
trail arrived at the R-AJT. hos-
pital, bidden in the folds of the
Vale of Glamorgan.* As darkness
closed in, the twin pin-points of
car headlights weaving along
peaceful 'country lanes announced
the arrival of more relatives.
Most of the grisly task of identi-
fication has to be done by means
of the dead passengers' personal
possessions."
Most of the men MUed were
miners from villages and valleys
near where the disaster occurred;
They worked mainly underground
and had. saved for months for
this trip.
They bad trooped aboard the
plane at Dublin laughing and
shouting to- Irishmen' they' were
leaving behind. Many wore tam
o'shanters, or red and white
scarves, or leeks. They had
gathered around an airport offic-
ial just ' before leaving . and
asked: ' "Where Í can. we get the
juiciest steaks? We want them
smothered with onions."
The Minister, for Civil Aviation
(Lord Pakenham) said, on arrival
at IJandow, that there would
be a court of inquiry.
The pilot, 25-year-old Captain
D. J. Parsons, was awarded the
British Empire medal for his
work in the Berlin airlift.
EYE-WITNESSES* STORY- -
Two brothers, 19-year-old. Vivian
Newman and 29-year-old Thomas
Newman, saw the crash while play-
ing -, football In their garden.
Thomas said: "We saw- the air-
craft coming In at about 30 feet as
if preparing to land. I remarked to
my brother that it looked very
low. We thought something was
going to happen. We started to
run. It banked to the right and
started to climb; Then the engine
cut out and It nose-dived into the
ground. It seemed to burst into
pieces only a few yards from our
garden. We rushed over and a man
staggered out of the wreckage and
gasped to get some help.**
OTHER DISASTERS
Other major air- disasters-include
62 killed when the British dirigible
ZR2 .snapped in two on a trial trip
near Hulton August 24, 1921. and
73 killed when the United States
dirigible Akron crashed into the
sea on January 4, 1933, off the
New Jersey coast
The. four survivors-all badly
hurt-are being treated in a near-'
by BA?, hospital. Two of them
were the last to get on the plane
and escaped by the báck door. The
rear of the plane was the least
damaged. ' '
The plane broke In half as it
landed half a mile from the run-
way. The forepart of the Tudor
'was only a few yards from a farm-
house. One af the engines dug it-
self eight feet into the ground.
The dead were taken by ambul-
ances to the RJLP. hospital which
converted . an entire wing into a
temporary morgue.
Two survivors, Handel Rogers
and Gwyn Anthony, are brothers
in-law. There were at least three
women among the killed.
SCATTERED SOUVENIRS
A farm labourer said he saw the
plane come in low to land, but sud-
denly it seemed to pull up, went
straight up in the air. turned over
on its- back and plunged to earth.
Parcels af'nylons and other sou-
venirs of the week-end trip were
strewn around the wreckage.
- The Tudor left Dublin airport ¡
.with pnongh fuel for nearly four
hours' flying time and had been
in the air only SO minutes when it
crashed. The passengers. Jubilant,
siter-the Welsh victory, were whip-"
ped through the Customs at Dublin
and the Tudor made a normal take- J
off.
The g lane had flown to Dublin
on. March 10 and was the first of
its kind to land there. The crew of
five included an engineer. They
had refused an Irish airline's offer
of servicing facilities and had done
the work themselves.
It is understood that 73 passen-
gers were to have travelled, but six
extra seats were put in the plane,
which waa specially chartered by
some businessmen in Cardiff, and
the passengers paid £10/5/- for the
trip, makin-; a total fare money
of about £800.
Lord Pakenham left Beading
(Berkshire) to-night for the scene
of the crash. "
ATJTHOBISED LOAD
-JThe "Daily vExpress" says-that
th« Tudor's- . certificate bf air-
worthiness was ' originally for a
maximum of 72 passengers, but
it was later increased to 78-the
number on board to-day.
People'at the airport reported
that only three of the four pro-
pellers were working as the
plane came in. Above the run-
way; it began to climb at full
throttle, then it stalled.
? One theory, is that the passen-
gers crowded to the windows on
the side of the plane where an
engine was feathered and made
it lurch. Two, critical moments
of a plane's flight are the take-off
and the landing approach, when
the plane's speed is only slightly
above its minimum flying speed.
At these times engine failure or
«a sudden shift of balance may
cause a loss bf flying speed, a
stall and crash.
PERFECT SPRING DAT
It was a perfect spring day.
ScoreB of relatives and friends
waited to cheer the triumphant
Rugby fans home after Wales'
victory over their traditional
Irish rivals. Bow upon row of
cars were there' to meet them.
Out of the cloudless blue sky
came the' plane, and villagers
stood in their- gardens watching
the monster-nudge its way down.
Then came the heart-rending
crump as the plane jagged Its
way into the field.
A.freak of luck saved Squad-
ron-Leader Bill Irwin, a war-time
R-A.F. hero, who went to Belfast
with the original party, but flew
back in another plane.
BENNETT'S FAITH IN TUDORS
The last few years of the car-
eer of Australian-born Aire Vice
Marshal Donald' Bennett- have
been notable for his unshaken
faith in Tudors.
After a brilliant career as chief
of RAF. Pathfinders^ he became
chief executive of British South
American Airways in 1945. Then
came the great Tudor con-
troversy which saw Bennett as
one of the Tudor's greatest pro-
ponents. Tudor Mark 4's were
grounded and early in 1948, the
KS AA, announced it had' ended
Bennett's appointment "after dif-
ferences of opinion on matters, of.
policy."
But Bennett's-, faith in the
Tudor was unshaken! Soon after
leaving BJSAA, he was flying
a Tudor of his own. He then
formed a charter'company, Fair
flight Limited, and made over
300 flights on the Berlin airlift.
He later ran a thriving airline
between Yemen and Israel- with
Tudors, one of which was badly
damaged by Egyptian anti-air-
craft fire last October. Then,
piloting his own Tudor, - Bennett
ran an airlift for Pakistan. He
was born in 1910 in Toowoomba.
WAS NOT OVERLOADED.
.' The. "Daily Telegraph" says that
an official of the A. V. Roe and
Co., manufacturers of the. plane,
said % to-night that the fact that
there .were 84 people on board did.
not mean it was overloaded.
The. gross weight allowed for the
tyne is 80,000 lb, and 80 people,
calculated at 200 lb. each,. which
is more than the. normal allowance,
would be 16,000 lb..of this total.
For short trips the aircraft are
usually fitted with high density
seating accommodation.
"EVERYTHING CORRECT."
The safety belts of two of the
survivors of the plane crash held
: them firm during the crash. After-
wards both were able to escape
practically uninjured through the
torn fuselage.
"Bennett said: 'As far as we can
see- everything. was in "correct- or-
der. There were 83 people ott
board, a load within the certificate
of airworthiness, requirement.
SEATS GAVE WAY.
The "Daily ' Telegraph" says it
now is believed that the passengers
were strapped in their seats. In
crashing, the seats probably gave
way, which accounted for the severe
head Injuries suffered by many of
the passengers.
$