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Papa India Trident accident Staines - 45 years ago today


Eric Mc

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On the only patch of open ground for hundreds of yards, near the Crooked Billet roundabout and the reservoirs.  I was looking at a set of P3's instrument panels at Cockpitfest yesterday which brought the accident back to me.  RIP 'PI's 119 souls.

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Hello

I remember watching a TV program some twenty years ago about this accident. IIRC the story went something like this: The cause of the accident had been determined relatively quickly: FDR showed that during initial climb droops had been lifted at IAS some 50 knots too low for a Trident to remain flying. Post-mortem of the crew revealed that Captain Key, former RAF WWII pilot and senior flight instructor with plenty of experience had not been killed on impact, but actually died minute or so earlier of some sort of delayed heart attack. The event that triggered this probably took place about an hour before the take-off, when Key had been seen in heated argument with one of the junior pilots. Although he probably had not even been aware of that, Key was actually dying during the take-off. During final moments of his life his judgement must have been seriously affected by the agony, so either his actions or his commands, or perhaps lack of them, probably led to Papa India's demise.

Key had not been particularly popular among younger pilots. A photo of blackboard at BEA had also been shown during the program with anonymous comments, written before the crash, that went something like: ˝Key should go.˝, ˝Where to?˝, ˝To BOAC!˝, ˝But if Key goes, who is then going to be God's representative at BEA?˝. Nevertheless his seniority was such that in flight no copilot or flight engineer would dare to question his decisions, let alone act against them. As at the time no CVR had been required, sadly no definite answer to a question, what had been going on in the cockpit during that brief flight will ever be known. RIP to all aboard.

Jure

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One of the teachers in my school in Dublin lost his brother in the crash. There were 11 Irish senior civil servants on their way to Brussels to take part in EEC negotiations  (it was only a few months before Britain and Ireland joined the EEC).

Edited by Eric Mc
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I'm sure there's another thread on the site covering this crash but, to expand a little on Jure's post, the accident investigators were never able to establish who had selected droops "UP".

 

Normal practice on the BEA Trident fleet appears to have been to get the flaps up as soon as possible after take off, an action which was taken on the accident flight.  This left the droops lever unguarded (with flaps selected down the droops lever could not be moved to the "UP" position.

 

Jeremy Keighley in the co-pilot's seat could have selected droops "UP", but he was busy setting engine power to noise abatement levels, a fact recorded in his log, which apparently wasn't an easy task in the turbulent weather that day: he also tended to be slower than some other trainee pilots in performing certain tasks on the flight deck.  With the droops retracting well below target speed of 225 knots the stall warning and stall prevention systems both functioned correctly, despite a critical valve in the stick push system being out of position.  Key, probably in considerable pain, may have associated the low speed with flap drag and, thinking that the flaps were still lowered, moved the only lever apparent to him, the droops lever, to "UP".  

 

The stall warning (stick shaker) and stall prevention (stick pusher) both produced a number of audible and visual warnings on the flight deck, including red and amber "Alert" lights in front of both pilots, "Droops out of position", "Controls", "Autopilot disconnect", "Stick push operate" and, possibly "Stick push fail".   The autopilot disconnect also produc d a loud "clang, clang, clang" in the crew's earphones which continued until impact (this alarm could be cancelled by pressing a button on either control column, the fact that neither pilot did so suggests an inability to do so through collapse (Key) or dramatically increased workload and rapidly changing priorities (Keighley).  Simon Ticehurst (P3) was far from ideally placed to do anything about if and, along with a BEA Vanguard captain (Captain Collins) who was riding in the jump seat, could well have been fully occupied with attempting to minister to the ailing Key, or at least extract him from his seat in order to assist Keighley in flying the aeroplane.  (Captain Collins was an experienced Trident pilot who had transferred to the Vanguard fleet on promotion and was flying to Brussels to collect a Vanguard to fly back to Heathrow.)

 

Those who flew this flight afterwards in the simulator have described it as a very stressful experience, even for someone not suffering from a chronic and very painful heart condition (Key) or a lack of experience (Kieghley and Ticehurst).  

 

Key was PF and held the nose up against the stick pusher, aware that the aeroplane was still close to the ground  which he couldn't see due to being in cloud ('PI's highest recorded altitude on the accident flight was 1,774 feet) and that there had been some spurious "stick push" incidents.  At some point the stick push was selected to "Override" dumping the air for the ram overboard: did Key instruct one of his crew to do this?  Again there's no clear evidence to suggest who did so or a definitive reason for so doing.

 

Because of this accident flying became safer, it is a crying shame that 119 people had to die that day to bring all of us other air travellers that benefit.  I'll try to fill in some more later but, for now, my boss is expecting me at work.

 

Edited by stever219
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Hello

This accident helped to introduce regulation, which made CVR mandatory. Certainly a progress, but not worth 119 lives. After causes for 1999 Egypt Air 990 crash has not been clearly determined, there has been calls to introduce cameras into cockpit, cabin and to monitor other vital parts of an airliner. No such regulation has been introduced, although I do not know whether perhaps some airlines installed such cameras on their on initiative or not. Cheers

Jure

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There was a lot of opposition to CVRs when they were first mooted. Flight crews were afraid they would be used by management as a "spy in the cab". They are now accepted as the norm. However, a similar issue over cock[pit cameras is still ongoing.

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Hello

Agreed Eric Mc. Of course, CVR comes with clear wire/tape/memory capability which is usually applied by the last crew member to leave cockpit upon landing. The same would probably work fine with cameras, too. Some fifteen years ago comments on this topic on various forums ranged from amusing (˝What, now I will have to fly a plane with my clothes on?) to categorically negative ones (˝Over my death body!˝). Even with cameras in place, dark sunglasses would still help pilots to concentrate if on long, monotonous flights they suddenly feel irresistible need to quietly contemplate the meaning of life or to mentally immerse themselves into sub-atomic particles physics. Cheers

Jure

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About a year ago I was visiting Springbank Cemetery in Aberdeen where both sets of grandparents are buried and by pure chance I noticed the grave of one of the Papa India victims, possibly a member of the cabin crew. I can't remember the exact inscription but it was a clear reference to the Staines crash.  The victim was female and I think the surname began with "M".  

 

Although nobody knows exactly who did what, Papa India is a very well-documented event.

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