Date:	Saturday 16 February 1980
Time:	14:16
Type:	Bristol 175 Britannia 253
Owner/operator:	Redcoat Air Cargo
Registration:	G-BRAC
MSN:	13448
Year of manufacture:	1959
Total airframe hrs:	21963 hours
Cycles:	8310 flights
Engine model:	Rolls-Royce Proteus 790
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 7 / Occupants: 8
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	Billerica, MA -   United States of America
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Cargo
Departure airport:	Boston-Logan International Airport, MA (BOS/KBOS)
Destination airport:	Shannon Airport (SNN/EINN)
Investigating agency:	NTSB
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
Flight 103 took off from Boston runway 33L at 14:08 in bad weather (800 m visibility in snow, fog and moderate to severe icing in precipitation).
The cargo aircraft reached an altitude of 1700 feet after takeoff and started to descend. The aircraft descended into a wooded area and crashed.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "Degraded aerodynamic performance beyond the flight capabilities of the aircraft resulting from an accumulation of ice and snow on the airframe before take-off and a further accumulation of ice when the aircraft was flown into moderate to severe icing conditions following take-off.
Contributing were encounters with windshear, downdraughts and turbulence during the climb. The failure of the flight crew to obtain an adequate pre-flight weather briefing and the failure of the National Weather Service to advise the crew of a SIGMET for severe icing conditions were also contributing factors."

NTSB Safety Recommendations A-81-18
NTSB-AAR-81-3

photo (c) Caz Caswell; Toronto-Pearson International Airport, ON (YYZ); 21 July 1979

photo (c) via Werner Fischdick; London-Luton Airport (LTN); September 1978

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