ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 18628
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| Date: | Friday 4 November 1983 |
| Time: | 16:30 UTC |
| Type: |  Cessna F152 II (Reims) |
| Owner/operator: | Henry Arthur (Harry) Knight |
| Registration: | G-BKDZ |
| MSN: | F152-1439 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | St. Mary Cray, Kent, 1¼ nautical miles east of Biggin Hill -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Approach |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | Ostende, Belgium (OST/OBOS) |
| Biggin Hill, Kent (BQH/EGKB) | |
| Investigating agency: | AIB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
Cessna F152 II (Reims) G-BKDZ: Written off (destroyed) due to fatal crash into trees and overhead power lines at St. Mary Cray, 1¼ nautical miles east of Biggin Hill, Kent, at 560 feet AMSL on 4 November 1983.
On the afternoon of 4 November 1983 Cessna 152 G-BKDY was flying VFR (visual flight rules - which require an aircraft to fly out of cloud) from Ostend to Biggin Hill. The cloud base and visibility was reasonable as the Cessna passed over the Kent coast, at about 2000 feet, but both decreased significantly and relatively swiftly as the overland part of its flight progressed. By 16:13 visibility at Biggin Hill had reduced to 1300 metres. Seven minutes later it was down to about 1000 metres. Five minutes on the visibility south of Biggin Hill was only about 500 metres. The pilot of the Cessna was advised accordingly. His response was that as he was only six minutes out, he would make a visual approach. After another three minutes the Biggin Hill tower was in fog with visibility of only 500 metres. The pilot of the Cessna asked for the QFE (barometric pressure reading, by reference to which the Cessna would set the altimeter for landing at Biggin Hill), which was given and acknowledged. That was the last communication that Biggin Hill ATC had with the pilot of the Cessna.
Not long after losing radio contact with the Cessna Biggin Hill ATC started to receive reports of an aircraft crashing about 1.25 nautical miles east of the airport. This placed the incident on the edge of the high ground on which the airfield is situated (some sources give the accident location as St Mary Cray, but this seems a little too far out). These reports said that the aircraft had been flying low, to keep below the cloud base. It transpired that the Cessna had gone down to a mere sixty feet in order to maintain visual contact with the ground and, as a result, had struck trees, which caused it to dive onto HT electricity cables and then crash into the ground below. The pilot, who was alone in the Cessna, was killed on impact.
The subsequent investigation into the accident failing to find any other cause, it must be the case that the cause of this crash was pilot error in pursuing his approach to the airfield in such weather conditions as required him to descend so low over high ground in order to maintain VFR.
Registration G-BKDZ cancelled by the CAA on 24 February 1984 as aircraft "Destroyed".
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
1. Air Britain: British Civil Aircraft Registers 1919 to 1999 (published 1999)
2. Sevenoaks Chronicle - Friday 11 November 1983
3. CAA: https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-BKDZ.pdf
4. AAIB Final Report: http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/Cessna%20F152%20G-BKDZ%2002-84.pdf
5. https://www.pprune.org/private-flying/497691-cirrus-sr22-chute-pull-post-landing-video-birmingham-alabama-6th-oct-2012-a-6.html#post7467358
6. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=17634.0
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary_Cray
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 17-May-2008 11:10 | ASN archive | Added |
| 28-Sep-2011 02:42 | Uli Elch | Updated [Aircraft type, Cn, Location, Country, Phase, Nature, Source, Damage, Narrative] |
| 21-Nov-2012 17:03 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 19-Jun-2014 19:09 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 09-Nov-2020 14:39 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Operator, Source, Accident report] |
| 10-Nov-2020 00:02 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Source, Narrative] |
| 19-Sep-2022 11:50 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Operator, Source, Category] |
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