Iberia Airlines Flight 062
Encyclopedia
Iberia Airlines
Flight 062 was a twin-engined Sud Aviation Caravelle
registered EC-BDD operating a scheduled flight from Malaga Airport
, Spain, to London Heathrow Airport
. While on approach to Heathrow on 4 November 1967, the Caravelle descended far below the flight level assigned to it and flew into the southern slope of Blackdown Hill
in West Sussex, killing all 37 on board.
110 (11000 ft) to FL60 (6000 ft). Flying at a shallow rate of descent, the Caravelle first clipped trees near Black Down House, then broke through a large hedge and careened across a meadow where 65 grazing sheep were killed outright and 23 more were fatally injured. The disintegrating plane continued on, destroying a garage and damaging parts of the roof of Upper Black Down House.
Aviation fuel caused small fires to break out in the wooded hillside. Debris from the aircraft was scattered over the whole of the roughly 355 yards of its passage.
and from the recovered cockpit voice recorder
revealed nothing unusual. The investigation stated that "no evidence was found of any pre-crash failure or defect in either the airframe or the engines, or of any faulty workmanship."
The investigation report gave considerable attention to the possibility that the air crew could have misread their "three-pointer" altimeter
s, which were designed to warn the pilots with a cross hatch indicator when the altitude was below 10,000 feet. An excerpt from the report stated:
, who was five months pregnant. Other notables who died were industrialist and Coventry City Football Club vice-president John Clarkson, and Donald "Doc" Campbell of the Campbell Aircraft Company, builder of autogyro
s.
A mass grave and memorial for 19 of the deceased is located 28 km (17.4 mi) north of the crash site at 51.30254°N 0.6288°W in Brookwood Cemetery
, Brookwood, Surrey
.
The nationality of the 37 casualties are listed below.
Iberia Airlines
Iberia Líneas Aéreas de España, S.A., commonly known as Iberia, is the flag carrier airline of Spain. Based in Madrid, it operates an international network of services from its main bases of Madrid-Barajas Airport and Barcelona El Prat Airport....
Flight 062 was a twin-engined Sud Aviation Caravelle
Sud Aviation Caravelle
The Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle was the first short/medium-range jet airliner produced by the French Sud Aviation firm starting in 1955 . The Caravelle was one of the more successful European first generation jetliners, selling throughout Europe and even penetrating the United States market, with...
registered EC-BDD operating a scheduled flight from Malaga Airport
Málaga Airport
Málaga Airport , also known as Malaga Costa Del Sol Airport and Pablo Ruiz Picasso Airport, is the fourth busiest airport in Spain after Madrid-Barajas, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca. It is an important airport for Spanish tourism as it is the main international airport serving the Costa Del Sol....
, Spain, to London Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow Airport or Heathrow , in the London Borough of Hillingdon, is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom and the third busiest airport in the world in terms of total passenger traffic, handling more international passengers than any other airport around the globe...
. While on approach to Heathrow on 4 November 1967, the Caravelle descended far below the flight level assigned to it and flew into the southern slope of Blackdown Hill
Blackdown, Sussex
Blackdown, or Black Down, is the highest hill in the historic county of Sussex, at 280 metres , and is second only to Leith Hill in southeastern England....
in West Sussex, killing all 37 on board.
Crash sequence
The time of the accident was approximately 10:02 pm, about 5½ minutes after the plane had been cleared to descend from FLFlight level
A Flight Level is a standard nominal altitude of an aircraft, in hundreds of feet. This altitude is calculated from the International standard pressure datum of 1013.25 hPa , the average sea-level pressure, and therefore is not necessarily the same as the aircraft's true altitude either...
110 (11000 ft) to FL60 (6000 ft). Flying at a shallow rate of descent, the Caravelle first clipped trees near Black Down House, then broke through a large hedge and careened across a meadow where 65 grazing sheep were killed outright and 23 more were fatally injured. The disintegrating plane continued on, destroying a garage and damaging parts of the roof of Upper Black Down House.
Aviation fuel caused small fires to break out in the wooded hillside. Debris from the aircraft was scattered over the whole of the roughly 355 yards of its passage.
Investigation
An investigation could not determine why the aircraft descended through its assigned flight level. Audio recordings taken from air traffic controlAir traffic control
Air traffic control is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. The primary purpose of ATC systems worldwide is to separate aircraft to prevent collisions, to organize and expedite the flow of traffic, and to provide information and other...
and from the recovered cockpit voice recorder
Cockpit voice recorder
A cockpit voice recorder , often referred to as a "black box", is a flight recorder used to record the audio environment in the flight deck of an aircraft for the purpose of investigation of accidents and incidents...
revealed nothing unusual. The investigation stated that "no evidence was found of any pre-crash failure or defect in either the airframe or the engines, or of any faulty workmanship."
The investigation report gave considerable attention to the possibility that the air crew could have misread their "three-pointer" altimeter
Altimeter
An altimeter is an instrument used to measure the altitude of an object above a fixed level. The measurement of altitude is called altimetry, which is related to the term bathymetry, the measurement of depth underwater.-Pressure altimeter:...
s, which were designed to warn the pilots with a cross hatch indicator when the altitude was below 10,000 feet. An excerpt from the report stated:
"The aircraft descended continuously at a steady rate over a period of 13½ minutes and the pointers would have been in continuous motion throughout, increasing the likelihood of misreading. The cross hatching in this type of altimeter first appears in a window in the 10,000ft disc at an indicated altitude of 26,666ft and the edge of the cross hatching would have been visible within 2 minutes of the aircraft beginning its descent. At 10,000ft the cross hatching completely fills the window and it remains filled as long as the aircraft is below 10,000ft. Thus the cross hatching would have been visible to the crew for a period of about 9½ minutes before the aircraft passed through FL60 and it is a matter of conjecture whether it was still an effective warning to them at that stage of the descent.
"With this type of altimeter it is not difficult to read an indication of 6,000ft as 16,000ft if particular note is not made of the position of the 10,000ft pointer. Evidence against the possibility of simple misreading of this sort is the message from the aircraft to ATC reporting passing FL145, indicating at this time the crew knew that they were below 16,000ft. "
Victims
Among the dead was British film and TV actress June ThorburnJune Thorburn
June Thorburn was a popular English actress whose career was cut short by her death in an air crash.-Early life:Thorburn was born in Karachi when the city was still in a non-independent India...
, who was five months pregnant. Other notables who died were industrialist and Coventry City Football Club vice-president John Clarkson, and Donald "Doc" Campbell of the Campbell Aircraft Company, builder of autogyro
Autogyro
An autogyro , also known as gyroplane, gyrocopter, or rotaplane, is a type of rotorcraft which uses an unpowered rotor in autorotation to develop lift, and an engine-powered propeller, similar to that of a fixed-wing aircraft, to provide thrust...
s.
A mass grave and memorial for 19 of the deceased is located 28 km (17.4 mi) north of the crash site at 51.30254°N 0.6288°W in Brookwood Cemetery
Brookwood Cemetery
Brookwood Cemetery is a burial ground in Brookwood, Surrey, England. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in western Europe.-History:...
, Brookwood, Surrey
Brookwood, Surrey
Brookwood is a village in Surrey, located about 5 km west of Woking, in a semi-rural location. It lies on the western border of the Woking Borough ....
.
The nationality of the 37 casualties are listed below.
| Nationality | Casualties |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 25 |
 Spain Spain |
9 (inc. 7 crew) |
 United States United States |
2 |
 Australia Australia |
1 |
See also
- United Airlines Flight 389United Airlines Flight 389United Airlines Flight 389 was a scheduled flight from LaGuardia Airport, New York City, New York, to O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois. On August 16, 1965, at approximately 21:21 EST, the Boeing 727 crashed into Lake Michigan east of Fort Sheridan, near Lake Forest, while descending...
– another incident where altimeter misreading is suspected, but not proven - Controlled flight into terrainControlled flight into terrainControlled flight into terrain describes an accident in which an airworthy aircraft, under pilot control, is unintentionally flown into the ground, a mountain, water, or an obstacle. The term was coined by engineers at Boeing in the late 1970s...
Further reading
- Sussex Constabulary (1967). Report on Air Disaster at Blackdown Hill, Sussex, 4 November 1967 [by] Supt G. Dinley [West Sussex Record Office].
External links
- Flight International, 30 August 1970, p. 264 (PDF) – includes a summary of the Board of Trade crash report
- History of Caravelle EC-BDD – very brief timeline
- Photographs of Iberia Caravelles, similar to the accident aircraft at Airliners.netAirliners.netAirliners.net is an aviation website founded by Johan Lundgren, Sweden, in 1997, evolving from his previous Pictures of Modern Airliners site started in 1994...
- Inventory of items in the UK National Archives relating to the crash – of interest to researchers