British Island Airways - Accidents and Incidents

Accidents and Incidents

There are two recorded, non-fatal incidents involving aircraft operated by the original BIA during its ten year existence from 1970 until 1980.

The first of these incidents occurred on 20 December 1974 involving one of the airline's Handley Page Dart Herald turboprops (registration: G-BBXJ) in a landing accident at Jersey Airport. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair but there were no injuries among the 54 occupants.

The second incident occurred on 20 July 1975. It involved another of the company's Handley Page Dart Heralds (registration: G-APWF) in a runway accident while departing London Gatwick on a scheduled flight to Guernsey. According to eye-witness reports, the aircraft lifted off from runway 26 after a ground run of 2,490 ft (760 m) and appeared airborne for 411 ft (125 m) with its landing gear retracting before the rear underside of the fuselage settled back on to the runway. None of the 45 occupants, including the 41 passengers who were safely evacuated via the aircraft's crew entrance door by the two cabin crew members on the instructions of the flight's commander, were hurt in that accident. The subsequent investigation concluded that this accident had been caused by the landing gear being retracted before the aircraft had been properly established in its initial climb. Other contributory factors included a mistaken wing flap configuration and the resulting inadequate airspeed at rotation. The aircraft itself sustained substantial damage and required extensive repairs in order to be restored to an airworthy condition.

In addition to the two aforementioned incidents, in 1979, BIA's maintenance engineers had discovered fatigue cracks in the fuselages of some of the firm's Heralds during routine inspections of the aircraft. This required the affected aircraft to be taken out of service to repair the cracks.

There is one recorded, non-fatal incident involving an aircraft operated by the reconstituted BIA.

This incident occurred on 12 April 1988. It involved a BAC One-Eleven 500 (registration: G-AYWB). The aircraft, which had been cleared to land on Gatwick's runway 08L (the airport's standby runway), inadvertently landed on the parallel taxiway. An air traffic controller in Gatwick's control tower, who spotted the BIA One-Eleven coming in to land on the taxiway parallel to the emergency runway, ordered a British Airways Boeing 737 that had just entered the same taxiway to vacate it immediately. This resulted in the 737 taxiing right into the grass and the One-Eleven stopping 100-200m to the west of the 737's position.