Oh I remember this as if it were yesterday! I remember the Investigation as well ! A single mistake cost 118 lives so sad . My father was a BEA pilot and did fly with Captain Key earlier in his career.
To hear these accounts from emergency workers who attended the scene some 50 years after this awful tragedy is very moving !! My Uncle is Chief Inspector Brian Lown - a Copper through and through, and listening to his memories of that time is very hard , and to him probably as vivid today as it was in 1972 !!
Hi Stuart, how lovely to read your comment! You must be very proud of your uncle. I was very honoured to meet him and discuss various things with him this summer. He's really such a key participant in the film and a real hero in so many ways! Agree with you it still seems so vivid to the emergency workers doesn't it. Makes me really grateful for everything they do.
This is such a good documentary! As someone who watches a great deal of plane crash docs, this crash always stuck with me, because it helped lead the way to CRM-Cockpit Resource Management. It’s so insightful to hear how the locals were affected by it. Thank you for a job well done
Great that you found the actual site, I found this a few years ago, you can see it from an alleyway. It was just heath-like with wild grass open trees and a few sheep. Impossible to imagine the chaos of the day. I was amazed at the proximity of the overhead lines. The plane must've literally fallen out of the sky, near straight. God help the people. Key would likely have had a major coronary when the alarm and stick shaker went on. He was not a well man.
Wonderfully presented and researched documentary, done with such care and compassion for both the victims and the emergency services who attended. Very well done.
I remember the noise as G-ARPI came down and the birds going quiet for what seemed like ages. I was aged 8 and around 750m away in a neighbours garden watching his father repair a puncture.
Great touching respectful documentary. I remember hearing about this from my parents who referred to it as the Stanley Key Crash. They had not moved into the east Reading area long at that time and rellies had visited on that day and they recalled them saying they were going to detour on their way back to see the plane. Doubt they would've got close but it shows the inapproriateness of major incident for such a densely populated area. The "oh look, this makes my area famous, I'm need to be there" kind of attitude. The people who had to be there i.e. the emergency services who don't want to be there, and then the local people who did, just to see it. Interesting contrast.
Well put together. I recall reading and hearing about this well after the event. The deep stall issue was known about after the BAC 1-11 crash in 1963 that killed the test crew. I like the human element side taken here, rather than another crash investigation report.
Wow what a great programme thank you, i have watched everything about this incident in the past but this had some learning for me ,especially the mapping of the tailplane well done and thank you
What a great video…. Thank you. I lived just up the road just about to turn 13 years old and heard the crash. My father was part of the investigation and can be seen in many of the news pictures of the crash and was one of the main people who pressed for CVRs to be installed. I eventually flew for over 35 years with BA and always paid my respects whilst over flying the site on the Epsom bound westerly departures.
Thank you, everyone, for your kind comments and for supporting this self-funded independent film! Question: does anyone know the name of the beautiful hymn from the church sequence TC (16'30" - 16'40") and (37'39" - 37'52")? Brought a tear to my eye filming it and never found out what it is called?
My wife's parents were killed on BEA 548. We went to the 45th anniversary in Staines, Met Mike Bannister, the BEA chief concord pilot, and his wife, they gave us a ride to St Mary's Church, where the memorial service was held. We also met Nurse Frances, who was the first to arrive on the scene and 2 of the news reporters who arrived on the scene right after the crash. Met several relatives of those who perished on the flight. I always believed that Captain Key was a victim of circumstance, that his unknown heart ailment may have contributed to the crash, but his younger, immature colleagues were too inexperienced to correct or overcome the unfortunate chaos that happened on the flight deck. I feel, Captain Key was a good guy and great pilot, although he was the butt of jokes from the younger and inexperienced pilots below him. The younger pilots wanted to strike, the older pilots were more mature and just wanted to do their jobs. I calculated the crash site within a few feet of your calculations, we visited the same location you visited, which is close to and behind Nurse Frances residence. Bless all those who assisted in the rescue. Great documentary, thanks...
Someone I work with his dad was a firefighter and attended this tragic event. Good video but for goodness sake wear you seatbelt if you are filming yourself driving.
The stick pusher is an automatic system which tries to unstall the wings - it's got nothing directly to do with improving the airflow to the engines. A jet engine stall does not cause a wing to lose lift in an aerodynamic stall - which is what happened here.
Dear chap, a “stall” on an aircraft has nothing to do with the engines, it refers to the airflow over the wing, the position of the engines has nothing to do with it, this is a common misconception as people are used to a car stall meaning the engine quite, the deep stall to which you refer concerns the T tail arrangement, this provides pitch control and in a deep stall the wake from the stalled wing renders the T tail useless.
I was sent this by my sister this morning, one of Irish men on flight, Rigby surname he worked for Irish Ropes back then in Newbridge, Co. Kildare so sad, so probably one of 12 Irish on business...Irish Ropes well gone now, but all I know it was to do with upholstery as such, carpet fitting for certain businesses...offices, furniture also. 10 years after I was born my home town.
Several people actually survived for a short time. They sustained 50G which even broke the seats. Flying will kill you. Always be prepared for the worst. Practice, practice again and again. Fast good; low bad. CAVU skies to all aviators - kilo papa uniform 54, RAFVR.
My good friend who’s friend was a fire dog was on the scene and many victims were on morphine drips she was there to take evidence pictures, medics said to be careful there dieing as to not knock into them , you are correct that there were more actually alive on impact ,the medics said there bodies were shattered
12:00 A stall in this context has nothing to do with the engines. As an airplane flies more slowly the nose must be raised to increase the "angle of attack" The AOA is the angle between the cord of the wing (a line running from the leading edge to the trailing edge through the center of the wing) and the oncoming air flow. The higher the AOA the higher the lift generated, but at some point the air can no longer follow the top of the wing and it detaches becoming turbulent. This is a stall. The wing is no longer producing lift. If there is an asymmetry from one wing to the other this will cause one wing to stop flying before the other inducing an uncontrolled bank. And because of an asymmetry in drag a rotation is also induced causing the plane to enter into a spin. This is what causes most crashes that involve the airplane stalling.
No mention of mandatory noise abatement procedures, this contributed to the accident. Rumours have it that there was a voice recorder on board but was experimental. Covered by a D notice.
The high lift devices controls were poorly designed. I've always seen just one control operating all high lift devices, with gates preventing inadvertent retraction beyond critical positions such as slats extended. Thr AAIB report does say that contrary to BEA procedures, some captains would retract the flaps very soon after liftoff in order to improve the climb performance. The incident that occurred previously and was lentioned here related to an inadvertent early retraction of the droops was suspected to be such an instance of mismanagement. Coupled with the old school CRM of the day, it was easy to imagine a captain retarcting the flaps early on his own accord and without any coordination with his FO.
6 minutes into a 48 minute film, it, and it is still in the intro credits, showing me bits of clips it will presumably show me in full later on. Only now there isn't that much time left, as it has taken 6 minutes to get nowhere. :(
Sorry to interrupt the show at only 1:17. But I had to come here just to say wow what delicious eye candy 🍬 you are , my young pup 🎉❤😊 Ok I'll compose myself and let's continue. 🫣
