Handley Page Type W - Accidents and Incidents

Accidents and Incidents

• On 10 July 1923, W.8 G-EAPJ Duchess of York of Handley Page Transport crashed at Poix, Marne, France. Flying from Croydon to Paris it made a forced landing due to engine problems, after landing it ran into a sunken road and was destroyed, the pilot and mechanic were thrown clear and none of the seven passengers were injured.
• On 21 October 1926, W.10 G-EBMS of Imperial Airways ditched in the English Channel 18 nautical miles (33 km) off the English coast. All 12 people on board were rescued by FV Invicta.
• On 15 February 1928, W.8 G-EBBG Princess Mary of Imperial Airways crashed at Abbeville, France.
• On 17 June 1929, W.10 G-EBMT City of Ottawa of Imperial Airways ditched in the English Channel whilst on a flight from Croydon to Paris with the loss of seven lives.
• On 31 May 1930, W.9a VH-ULK of the Ellyou Goldfields Development Corporation crashed into a mountain near Salamaua, Papua New Guinea.
• On 30 October 1930, W.8 G-EBIX City of Washington of Imperial Airways crashed at Neufchâtel-Hardelot, Pas-de-Calais, France.
• On 22 September 1934, W.10 G-EBMM Youth of New Zealand of Sir Alan Cobham's National Aviation Displays crashed at Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom. The airliner was being used as a tanker (it had extra fuel stored in the rear cabin) and was returning from Portsmouth to Coventry after a mid-air re-fuelling of an Airspeed Courier aircraft being used by Cobham for a long-distant flight to India. The Youth of New Zealand had just departed from Heston Aerodrome after being refuelled when it crashed into a field killing all four crew. The Inspector of Accidents concluded that the probable cause was a fracture of a main bolt that secured the bracing wires of the front spar to the tailplane. The failure of the bolt would cause a loss of control, failure of the bolt was probably fatigue. The aircraft had been involved in an early accident when the tailplane had been swapped with one from another aircraft but after 50 hours of flying since the repair it was not thought that the bolt had been disturbed.