ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 180475
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| Date: | Sunday 30 August 1970 |
| Time: | 19:02 |
| Type: |  Piper PA-28-140 Cherokee |
| Owner/operator: | Surrey & Kent Flying Club Ltd |
| Registration: | G-AVBN |
| MSN: | 28-22562 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Ruxley, near Sidcup, Kent -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | Biggin Hill Airport, Biggin Hill, Bromley, Kent (BQH/EGKB) |
| Biggin Hill Airport, Biggin Hill, Bromley, Kent (BQH/EGKB) | |
| Investigating agency: | AIB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
Written off (destroyed) 30/8/1970 when crashed at Ruxley, near Sidcup, Kent. Ravi Waran was a member of the Surrey & Kent Flying Club at Biggin Hill Airfield. On 30 August 1970 he booked an hour's solo flying on one of the Club's Cherokees. Because of poor visibility and Waran's lack of experience (he had obtained his PPL only 18 days previously and had less than 40 hours experience, just under 15 of which were as P1), a club instructor told him simply to stay in the airfield circuit to practise circuits and landings. Waran ignored that instruction and after take off flew away from the airfield in a north-westerly direction.
Some 15 or 20 minutes later G-AVBN was seen between Bromley and Beckenham at about 1000', turning steeply to left and right and diving and climbing. These manoeuvres took him down to an altitude of just 200-300' in the Chislehurst area. For the next 40 to 45 minutes he flew around Bromley, Chislehurst, Sidcup and Orpington at low level, making steep turns and performing semi-aerobatic manoeuvres. Biggin Hill ATC made several attempts to contact him but it seems that Waran did not respond.
By now low flying complaints were being made to the airfield and the police. At just after 19:00 hours G-AVBN was flying low over the A20 Orpington to Maidstone road. It made a right hand climbing turn, to clear trees bordering a caravan site, before descending, still in a turn, to strike the ground heavily some 300 yards south of the caravan site. The Cherokee broke up and caught fire. Waran was killed.
Waran had been economical with the truth when it came to his PPL medical. Asked to give the name of his GP, he said that he hadn't yet registered with one. Had he told the truth, his GP might have revealed that he was treating Waran for emotional tension, brought about by 'life stresses', in respect of which he was seeking relief through heavy drinking. Waran was described as 'highly emotional'. Had these facts been brought to the attention of the medical examiner, at his PPL medical, the result inevitably would have been a deferral of the examination until the examiner was satisfied that Waran had been successfully treated for his condition. Effectively he would not have been granted a PPL when he was and so it is unlikely that he would have been allowed to fly the Cherokee solo on 30 August.
To compound the problem, later it transpired that a domestic crisis had brought Waran to a state of emotional distress on 30 August. However he did not betray this either to the taxi driver who'd taken him to the airfield or the flying instructor who'd allowed him - albeit subject to the restrictions which he'd ignored - to fly that day. Furthermore a post-mortem examination revealed that Waran had a blood alcohol level of 313 mg per 100 ml of blood - a level which the AIB report described as 'commonly associated with coma'. But one must presume that neither the taxi driver nor the flying instructor smelt the alcohol on Waran's breath and he did not betray his intoxication in his actions or his speech. On this subject the AIB report said:
'...in this case it is inconceivable that the pilot would not have been clinically and noticeably drunk if he had achieved this blood alcohol level before boarding the aircraft'
and that:
'...it is inconceivable that the taxi driver...or the instructor...would have failed to notice symptoms of intoxication'.
but in fairness to them the report also says:
'Concentrations [of alcohol] of the order of 300 mg per 100 ml are normally associated with stupor. The pilot, therefore, must have taken some alcohol before the flight, but not enough to produce obvious symptoms of intoxication, and must have drunk half a bottle of vodka after boarding the aircraft, probably during the first 30 minutes of the flight'.
And when the wreckage of the Cherokee was examined, an empty 13 fl. oz. vodka bottle was found in the remains of the cockpit, which supports the suggestion that Waran had been drinking in flight.
The AIB report concluded that the level of alcohol in Waran's blood meant that he was an accident waiting to happen when he climbed into the Cherokee - because of the extent to which his flying skills and judgement would have been impaired by the alcohol he had consumed. The cause of the accident was given as:
'a loss of skill and judgement on the part of the pilot as a result of intoxication by alcohol'.
The only blessing is that he did not kill anyone on the ground as a result of his alcohol fuelled rampage through the skies of Kent.
The registration G-AVBN was cancelled by CAA on 26/10/70 as aircraft "destroyed".
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
1. AAIB: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5422f7e740f0b6134200061f/9-1971_G-AVBN.pdf
2. CAA: http://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AVBN.pdf
3. G-AVBN at Biggin Hill 24/5/70: https://www.airhistory.net/photo/90518/G-AVBN
4. G-AVBN at Sandown IoW 24/5/70: https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1327295
5. G-AVBN at Plymouth 14/6/69: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisengland/18729439073/
6. https://www.airliners.net/photo/Surrey-Kent-Flying-Club/Piper-PA-28-140-Cherokee/2039995/L
7. http://www.planetrace.co.uk/1970-1979_30.html
8. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=15796.0
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 17-Oct-2015 20:55 | Dr.John Smith | Added |
| 18-Oct-2015 17:47 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Narrative] |
| 18-Oct-2015 17:50 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Narrative] |
| 07-Mar-2020 18:53 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 07-Mar-2020 18:55 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Source] |
| 07-Mar-2020 18:56 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Narrative] |
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