1961 Holtaheia Vickers Viking crash

Airplane crash in Norway July 2014 September 2019 Holtaheia accident 9 August 1961 Eagle Airways Viking Manchester 1960.jpg A similar Vickers Viking operated by Eagle Airways in 1960 Controlled flight into terrain Accident Holta, Strand Municipality, Norway Vickers 610 Viking 3B London Heathrow, England Stavanger Airport, Sola 59 05 07 N 6 03 41 E scale:50000 title,inline Eagle Airways G-AHPM 39 36 3 0 The 1961 Holtaheia Vickers Viking crash (no Holtaheia-ulykken) was a controlled flight into terrain incident on 9 August 1961 at Holta in Strand Municipality, Norway. The Eagle Airways (later, British Eagle) Vickers 610 Viking 3B Lord Rodney was en route from London Heathrow to Stavanger Airport, Sola on an AIR Tours charter flight taking a school group for a camping holiday. The aircraft was making an instrument landing when it crashed 54 km on north east of Stavanger. All 39 people on board died. Crash thumb|Memorial at the site of the accident The Viking left London Heathrow at 13:29 on what was an estimated two and a half-hour charter flight.World Airline Accident Summary, United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority, 1974, 0-903083-44-2, page 17/61 Between 16:24 and 16:30 it crashed 18 nmi north-east of the airport on to Holtaheia, a steep mountainside at an elevation of 1600 ft. The crash site was 30 ft 0 below the summit."The Queen Sends Message To Families" The Times, 11 August 1961; pg. 8 The aircraft was destroyed and an intense fuel and oil fire followed the impact. The search for the aircraft included an RAF Shackleton and Royal Norwegian Navy ships investigating the fjords in the area."34 Boys in Missing Airliner" The Times, 10 August 1961; pg. 8 The wreckage was found fifteen hours after the crash by a Royal Norwegian Air Force helicopter, 15 mi east from the ILS track. Fatalities The 36 passengers were a school party of 34 boys aged 13 to 16 and two teachers from the Lanfranc Secondary Modern School for Boys (now The Archbishop Lanfranc Academy) in Croydon, South London. The three crew members on board also died. The crash was at the time the deadliest aviation incident in Norway.http://nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/rogaland/1.7743023 Ein heil skuleklasse døde i flyulukka Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation Hagir Lise Andreassen Oppedal Mathias 9 August 2011 Norwegian 28 August 2011 1 June 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20150601011206/http://nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/rogaland/1.7743023 live http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19610809-1 9 Aug 1961 Aviation Safety Network 28 August 2011 6 June 2011 https://web.archive.org/web/20110606092130/http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19610809-1 live Aircraft The aircraft was a twin piston-engined Vickers 610 Viking 3B serial number 152 and registered in the United Kingdom as G-AHPM.Martin 1975, p. 19 It first flew on 2 January 1947 and was delivered new to British European Airways. Investigation The report into the crash put the cause down to "a deviation from the prescribed flight path for reasons unknown".Flight International 4 October 1962, p. 557. Aftermath thumb|right|Memorial adjoining the communal grave in Mitcham Road Cemetery, Croydon 33 of the boys and one teacher were buried together at a communal grave at Mitcham Road Cemetery in Croydon on 17 August 1961.Thousands Line Funeral Route – 34 Air Crash Victims in Common Grave News 18 August 1961 10 55163 C Ewan MacColl, who lived in Croydon, wrote a song, "The Young Birds", about the accident.http://media.smithsonianfolkways.org/liner_notes/folkways/FW08734.pdf The New Briton Gazette Volume 2 Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger Liner notes Folkways Records 1962 Washington D.C. References Bibliography Jones Rosalind The Lanfranc Boys: the story of the Holtaheia plane crash in Norway Avernes-sous-Exmes Craigmore Publications 2011 978-0-9531890-3-8 Jones Rosalind Flystyrten i Holtaheia historien om flystyrten som kostet 39 mennesker livet den 9. august 1961 Sandnes Commentum 2011 978-82-8233-052-7 Jones Rosalind The Papa Mike Air Crash Mystery Craigmore Publications 2017 978-0-9531890-5-2 Martin Bernard Viking, Valetta, Varsity Tonbridge Air-Britain 1975 0-85130-038-3 http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1961/1961%20-%201138.html The Stavanger Tragedy Flight 17 August 1961 240 http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1962/1962%20-%202258.html Stavanger Accident Report Flight International 4 October 1962 557 External links https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14444295 Croydon remembers Lanfranc Boys after 1961 Norway air crash BBC News 9 August 2011 Lanfranc – Holtaheia, 50th Anniversary, 9 August 2011 Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in 1961 Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in Norway Category:1961 in Norway Category:Aviation accidents and incidents involving the Vickers VC.1 Viking Category:British Eagle accidents and incidents Category:Airliner accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain Category:August 1961 in Europe Category:1961 disasters in Norway