EGPF Forum

In today’s paper it mentions today is the 35th anniversary of British Airtours flight KT328 MAN-CFU In which 55 pax and staff lost their lives due to an engine failure on take off.


Closer to home we have lost Glasgow staff on a BEA Viscount test flight which crashed at Ben More and also the tragic loss of the Airtours crew positioning to ABZ to operate an ABZ-PMI-GLA rotation.

Let’s all take a moment to remember all those in all aspects of transport who lost their lives doing the day job which they loved to do.

I remember the Airtours staff flight crash west of GLA, I was out at Luss working on location shoot for Take The High Road, and received a call from a colleague assigned to news that day who was on his way to the scene and asking me what kind of plane it was and what he might encounter ? He certainly saw some unpleasant things as we all would from time to time, working news shifts.

I only read about the Ben More crash relatively recently after buying a model of the BEA Viscount, accurate to the livery and reg mark. The model manufacturer hadn't realised it was the same one apparently... A nasty one that, but at least the aircraft was barely occupied, being a post maintenance test flight.

can remember the day it crashed.was a youngster and had my VHF radio on.wondered why the controller kept calling its registration number .was only while watching the news that night that i realised it had crashed.might be wrong but didnt an aer lingus viscount overshoot the runway at glasgow ...probably in the late sixties

dav3 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 25, 2020 8:21 pm can remember the day it crashed.was a youngster and had my VHF radio on.wondered why the controller kept calling its registration number .was only while watching the news that night that i realised it had crashed.might be wrong but didnt an aer lingus viscount overshoot the runway at glasgow ...probably in the late sixties

The Airtours crew charter, Edinburgh Air Charter's Cessna 404 G-ILGW. was 3rd September 1999. EAC had a contract to swap 757 crews between GLA and ABZ, which they were using as an alternative to coach transfer. Airtours specified two crew, even although the Titan was cleared for single-pilot operation.

The British Airtours accident at Manchester was 35 years ago, on 22nd August 1985, with B737-236 G-BGJL.

sorry piper one. i didnt make it clear that i was talking about the viscount crash and not the airtours one.my bad

dav3 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 25, 2020 8:21 pm can remember the day it crashed.was a youngster and had my VHF radio on.wondered why the controller kept calling its registration number .was only while watching the news that night that i realised it had crashed.might be wrong but didnt an aer lingus viscount overshoot the runway at glasgow ...probably in the late sixties

IIRC it was a BEA one on a training flight - failed to get airborne after a touch and go.

Update - details here: http://www.vickersviscount.net/Index/Vi ... story.aspx

jetblue497 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 26, 2020 1:41 pm [quote=dav3 post_id=1567 time=<a href="tel:1598383284">1598383284</a> user_id=152]
can remember the day it crashed.was a youngster and had my VHF radio on.wondered why the controller kept calling its registration number .was only while watching the news that night that i realised it had crashed.might be wrong but didnt an aer lingus viscount overshoot the runway at glasgow ...probably in the late sixties

IIRC it was a BEA one on a training flight - failed to get airborne after a touch and go.

Update - details here: http://www.vickersviscount.net/Index/Vi ... story.aspx
[/quote]

dav3 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 26, 2020 9:47 am sorry piper one. i didnt make it clear that i was talking about the viscount crash and not the airtours one.my bad

It’s the wrong aircraft Jetblue497.

This was a BEA Viscount G-AOHI which crashed on BenMore during a maintenance flight as alluded to by Allen. From memory this was in 1973 when I was still at school in Paisley.

I am sure billyg, Piper One, Bearsden, Ian or Alsharp can confirm this too.

atuk wrote: ↑Wed Aug 26, 2020 2:25 pm

jetblue497 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 26, 2020 1:41 pm [quote=dav3 post_id=1567 time=<a href="tel:1598383284">1598383284</a> user_id=152]
can remember the day it crashed.was a youngster and had my VHF radio on.wondered why the controller kept calling its registration number .was only while watching the news that night that i realised it had crashed.might be wrong but didnt an aer lingus viscount overshoot the runway at glasgow ...probably in the late sixties

IIRC it was a BEA one on a training flight - failed to get airborne after a touch and go.

Update - details here: http://www.vickersviscount.net/Index/Vi ... story.aspx

dav3 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 26, 2020 9:47 am sorry piper one. i didnt make it clear that i was talking about the viscount crash and not the airtours one.my bad

It’s the wrong aircraft Jetblue497.

This was a BEA Viscount G-AOHI which crashed on BenMore during a maintenance flight as alluded to by Allen. From memory this was in 1973 when I was still at school in Paisley.

I am sure billyg, Piper One, Bearsden, Ian or Alsharp can confirm this too.
[/quote]

No - I was responding to this part "but didnt an aer lingus viscount overshoot the runway at glasgow ...probably in the late sixties"

I was on duty the day the Viscount crashed. Still recall the crew coming into the Met Office and saying he was just going off for a test flight. Didn't know it had crashed until later when off duty.

Wasn't around for the overshoot but have a couple of pictures of it in the field. BEA staff hurriedly taping over the reg and airline.

Hotel India's crash on Ben More was 19th January 1973, as mentioned above it was a post-maintenance test flight.

Like that Viscount website, good to see someone preserving the memory of a true classic airliner, which sold all round the World. Sadly its success was no replicated by any subsequent Vickers product, although the One-eleven did very well. The One-Eleven connection is a bit tenuous, as i came after Vickers became part of British Aircraft Corporation, but very much designed for the same markets as the Viscount.