ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 18956
This information is added by users of ASN. Neither ASN nor the Flight Safety Foundation are responsible for the completeness or correctness of this information.
If you feel this information is incomplete or incorrect, you can submit corrected information.
| Date: | Friday 5 May 1972 |
| Time: | 16:04 LT |
| Type: |  Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche |
| Owner/operator: | Stanley George Nicholson |
| Registration: | G-ASLD |
| MSN: | 30-58 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Newchurch, Isle of Wight -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Initial climb |
| Nature: | Private |
| Departure airport: | Bembridge, Isle of Wight (BBP/EGHJ) |
| White Waltham, Berkshire (EGLM) | |
| Investigating agency: | AIB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
On 5 May 1972 G-ASLD took off from Bembridge Aerodrome bound for White Waltham. At the controls was its owner, Stanley Nicholson, who was accompanied by two passengers. After leaving the ground, G-ASLD disappeared into cloud at about 300'. But a few minutes later the Twin Comanche was heard to be circling at a low altitude to the west of the aerodrome. Presumably no more was heard of it at Bembridge, as the next mention (in the AAIB report) is attributed to a witness on the ground at Sandown Aerodrome, who said that he heard the aeroplane, before it crashed, when its: 'engine noise reminded him of an aircraft making a loop' but he went on to say that: 'he realised that this was unlikely in the weather conditions' - which is why he thought that the aircraft was in trouble.
The AAIB report says that the Twin Comanche was seen twice more before it crashed. Firstly it was seen over Sandown, flying slowly in and out of the low cloud, heading north-west. Then it was seen at Newchurch, approaching from the west, at a low altitude and in a shallow dive. It then turned at almost 90º to starboard, followed by a turn to port, before it pulled up into an almost vertical climb to avoid a farmhouse. The witness to this described the engine noise as being the application of full throttle - followed by a cracking noise. The aircraft then banked steeply to port, and then to starboard, before diving steeply into a field, at an angle of about 45º to the horizontal, about 275 metres east of Newchurch. All three people aboard were killed on impact. The Twin Comanche was destroyed.
Nicholson did not have a valid twin engine rating on his licence. He hadn't flown a multi-engine aircraft for more than 13 months. Also his IMC rating had lapsed. Furthermore there was no evidence of compliance with the maintenance schedule required as a condition of the aircraft's Certificate of Airworthiness. The artificial horizon was defective and so might have been the turn and slip indicator.
The wreckage of the Twin Comanche was focussed on two discrete locations. At one was the fuselage, tail, engines and inner wings. At the other, some 550 metres distant, were the outer wings and tip tanks. This was in consequence of it having suffered a structural failure - the result of it having pulled up rapidly out of its final shallow dive. Inadvertently the pilot had imposed a load on the Twin Comanche's structure in excess of that which it was designed to withstand. This caused the outboard wings to fail and to detach from the inboard wings.
The crash had sequential causes. On take off from Bembridge, the aircraft almost immediately entered cloud. Had its artificial horizon and turn and slip indicator been working properly, flying in cloud might not have presented the pilot with problems. But because they weren't, there is a high probability that he became disorientated in cloud. So disorientated that, when he emerged from the cloud at low level and in a shallow dive, near Newchurch, he hadn't the time to orientate himself and lock onto a natural horizon. Thus he was reacting to events, as and when they occurred, which didn't permit reasoned planning. In consequence, when the farmhouse presented itself before him, pulling up to avoid it was the instinctive reaction. That overstressed the structure of the aircraft, with the greatest force being upon the outboard wings - which is why they failed. Their failure made the aircraft effectively uncontrollable in flight, with the inevitable result that it crashed to earth. The sad combination of all of these led to three deaths.
Registration G-ASLD cancelled by the CAA 5/5/72 as aircraft "destroyed"
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
1. CAA: https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-ASLD-1.pdf
2. CAA: https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-ASLD-2.pdf
3. AAIB: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/54230203ed915d1371000b81/12-1974_G-ASLD.pdf
3. G-ASLD at Kidlington, Oxfordshire 3-11-63: https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1195299/
4. http://wight.hampshireairfields.co.uk/iowc.html
5. http://www.flightglobal.com/FlightPDFArchive/1974/1974%20-%201520.PDF
6. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=15797.0
7. G-ASLD at Biggin Hill 9-5-64: https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1522209
8. https://www.airliners.net/photo/Untitled-Shackleton-Aviation/Piper-PA-30-160-Twin-Comanche/2583776/L
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 17-May-2008 11:10 | ASN archive | Added |
| 08-Aug-2012 16:44 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Time, Cn, Operator, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 28-Jan-2015 01:51 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Operator, Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 30-Jul-2015 00:40 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Source] |
| 08-Mar-2020 19:47 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
The Aviation Safety Network is an exclusive service provided by:
Quick Links:
| ASN Home | Send Correction / Feedback |
| FSF Home | Disclaimer | Copyright |
| Contact Us | Privacy Policy |
| Press / Media |
CONNECT WITH US:
©2024 Flight Safety Foundation