Tident accident in the 70s

Full report available on the AAIB site http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_control/documents/contentservertemplate/dft_index.hcst?n=5250&l=4

At the time of that accident I had just been posted by the RAF to RAE Farnborough, my office there was on the Air Display public area and quite close to E-Shed where the AIB Inspectors were based. The Trident was taken there from Staines for investigation.I was able to visit he area frequently and saw the investigation in progress as the Trident was virtualy rebuilt in the shed. It was a lesson in patience to watch that team in action, as they measured and checked every component,bulb and switch in the cockpit. The flap,slat and throttle controls were from the outset very thoughly investigated and I was one of a number of people asked to perform a particular sequence of operation on them under close observation by the investigators.
With the mechanical interlocks fitted at that time it appeared to be impossible to select the wrong sequence of operation. If I remember correctly the aicraft had virtualy no forward speed at the time of the crash and dropped like a stone landing practicaly flat. Most of the passenger seats had been flattened by the G-Forces involved

The AAIB report is available here.
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_avsafety/documents/page/dft_avsafety_502559.hcsp
mmitch

Another thing I remember about it is the uproar at the time because the A30 was chock a block with cars and sightseers. It was at a complete standstill and the emergency services could not get through until the police could clear it.

I remember the crash well as it happened about 3 weeks before my parents were due to fly out to Italy and really put the wind up my mother. Everyone on board were killed (118 I think)

Dave

I used to work at Courage (the Brewers) H.O. in Staines and passed the site daily. It is close to the Crooked Billet Roundabout (named after the pub there). The exactly location I am not sure of but someone said that housing had encroached on the field since 1972. Crashes at Heathrow is a seperate thread but in July 1968 a BKS Airspeed Ambassador carrying horses from France crashed on landing at Heathrow and hit two BEA Tridents before coming to rest against the terminal building. One of the Tridents was G-ARPI which was repaired and put back into service before its unfortunate end in the field at Staines.

Droops were specifically a Trident thing. Stupidly, the manufacturer put them on a separate lever to the flaps which played a massive part in this accident. I occasionally do a bit of instructing in a Trident sim and you can recreate the crash perfectly by raising the droops when you should be raising the flaps.

Thanks.:)

Droops is a UK term, they were high lift device on the leading edge

I’m just curious if “droops” is the common term in Australia or the UK for what we call “slats” in the US.