ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 17892
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| Date: | Friday 22 August 1969 |
| Time: | 18:50 UTC |
| Type: | Jodel DR.250 Series 160 |
| Owner/operator: | Staverton Flying School Ltd |
| Registration: | G-AVIV |
| MSN: | 92 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Carnedd Dafydd, Near Bethesda, North Wales -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Private |
| Departure airport: | Birmingham International Airport (BHX) |
| Dublin Airport, Dublin, Eire (EIDW/DUB) | |
| Investigating agency: | AIB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
Jodel DR250 G-AVIV: Written off (destroyed) 22-8-1969 when flew into high ground at Carnedd Dafydd, Near Bethesda, North Wales.
The aircraft was being flown by Mr John Richard West. He had one passenger with him (a Mr. Terrence Long) and they were en route from Birmingham to Dublin on business. They took off from Birmingham at 17:52 hours.
The air crash investigation states that two factors led to the accident:
(1) deteriorating weather conditions, which the pilot was unaware of in advance, because the period of validity of the forecast he was using had lapsed before the aircraft took off, and
(2) the pilot omitted to allow for magnetic variation - the difference between magnetic north and grid north on the air charts he was using – a difference of 10 degrees.
(There were other flight plans in the aircraft, in which the pilot had correctly calculated the magnetic variation.)
The combined effect of these two errors is that the aircraft flew well to the left of its intended course, and arrived over the North Welsh mountains in conditions of “high gusty winds with heavy rain showers and some hail.”
At 18:49 hours, the pilot made his last radio call, announcing “We’ve just experienced severe turbulence. Would like radar assistance if possible – Over.” Unfortunately the turbulence was probably being caused by the mountain straight ahead of them, which they could not see – hence the request for radar assistance. The aircraft crashed within the following 2 minutes.
The Jodel struck the east ridge of Carnedd Dafydd, at a height of 3,400 feet. It arrived from the right side of the photo below, which shows Carnedd Llewelyn in the left background. They were unfortunate not to clear the ridge, but it is also the case that they were flying 900 feet higher than their approved flight plan. After striking the ground, the aircraft bounced once and then broke up.
In the photograph below, the Lycoming engine is the blob to the left of the rest of the wreckage. Both occupants were thrown clear of the crash, but received fatal injuries. The wreck was discovered by a hill-walker at around 11:00 hours the next day (23rd Aug 1969).
Both occupants had been thrown from the aircraft on impact suffering fatal injuries as a result of being ejected through the aircraft’s structure and then impact with the rocky ground on the mountain. Although the aircraft was completely destroyed there was no fire.
The crash site was 8 miles south of the intended track of 277 degrees True Magnetic, but if the pilot had failed to apply a magnetic correction of 10 degrees and accidentally flown on 267 degrees True Magnetic would have passed almost directly over Carnedd Dafydd.
On the evening of the crash the mountains of Snowdonia were shrouded by cloud and it would appear that after getting into the area of poor weather west of Hawarden they had climbed into the cloud to about 3,400ft. Once sight of the ground had been lost it would not have been possible to realise that they were flying on the wrong course and so continued west. The severe turbulence which the pilot reported to Preston shortly before crashing would have been in the immediate lee of the Carneddau to the south east of Carnedd Llewelyn with the wind being from North-northwest.
Registration G-AVIV cancelled by the CAA as aircraft "destroyed 22-8-1969"; presumably this was retrospectively, as the CAA documents also note "confirmed 2-11-1969"
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
1. AAIB: https://assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk/media/5422fcd240f0b613420007fb/7-1971_G-AVIV.pdf
2. CAA: https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AVIV.pdf
3. National Archives (PRO Kew) Files AVIA 101/659 to AVIA 101/665 (7 Separate Files): https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C5070669 to https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C5070675
4. http://www.flydw.org.uk/DWR250.htm
5. http://www.planetrace.co.uk/1960-1969_29.html
6. https://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/crash_sites/wales/jodel-dr250-g-aviv-carnedd-dafydd/
7. https://www.facebook.com/PeakDistrictAirAccidentResearch/posts/jodel-dr250-g-aviv-belonging-to-staverton-flying-school-crashed-on-carnedd-dafyd/2502071313350489/
8. https://www.flickr.com/photos/egbj/5607271580/lightbox/
9. Yorkshire Air News July 1969: http://www.yorkshireairnews.co.uk/images/1969%2007.PDF
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 17-May-2008 11:10 | ASN archive | Added |
| 15-Jul-2012 08:46 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Time, Cn, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 15-Jul-2012 09:13 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Source, Embed code, Narrative] |
| 15-Jul-2012 09:43 | Anon. | Updated [Embed code, Narrative] |
| 03-Jun-2013 19:45 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Source, Embed code, Narrative] |
| 16-Oct-2015 21:29 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative] |
| 17-Oct-2015 17:15 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Source, Narrative] |
| 30-Sep-2020 18:59 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, Accident report] |
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