Channel Air Bridge - Accidents and Incidents

Accidents and Incidents

There is one recorded fatal accident involving a Channel Air Bridge aircraft.

The accident occurred on 28 December 1962. It involved an Aviation Traders ATL-98 Carvair (registration: G-ARSF) operating an international scheduled passenger flight from Southend to Rotterdam. While the Carvair was making a visual approach to Rotterdam Airport in conditions of snow with 1,460m visibility, the landing gear struck a 6 feet high dyke, 800 ft short of the runway threshold. When the plane hit the ground 200 ft further on, it bounced heavily. This resulted in the right wing becoming partially detached from the fuselage and the aircraft rolling rapidly to the right. After sliding inverted for about 700 ft, the Carvair came to a halt. This accident resulted in the death of one of the four crew members. All 14 passengers survived. Accident investigators established the fact that the commander carried out the final stage of approach below the normal glide path with insufficient engine power as the primary cause. This resulted in the speed of descent being too high in relation to the horizontal distance still to be covered to the beginning of the runway. As a result, the aircraft hit a dyke at a high vertical speed after facing the direction of the approach. The board of investigators furthermore concluded that the aircraft would still have hit the ground a considerable distance short of the runway threshold, possibly with less fatal consequences, even if there had been no dyke, which in this instance was not an obstruction of any significant height.