British European Airways Flight 226

British European Airways Flight 226

A British European Airways de Havilland DH-106 Comet 4B
Accident
Date	21 December 1961 (1961-12-21)
Summary	Loss of control
Site	Ankara Esenboğa Airport, Ankara, Turkey
Aircraft
Aircraft type	de Havilland DH-106 Comet 4B
Operator	British European Airways on behalf of Cyprus Airways
Registration	G-ARJM
Flight origin	London Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom
1st stopover	Rome Fiumicino Airport, Lazio, Italy
2nd stopover	Athens, Greece
3rd stopover	Istanbul, Turkey
4th stopover	Ankara Esenboğa Airport, Ankara, Turkey
Last stopover	Nicosia, Cyprus
Destination	Tel Aviv Airport, Tel Aviv, Israel
Occupants	34
Passengers	27
Crew	7
Fatalities	27
Injuries	6
Survivors	7

British European Airways Flight 226 was an international scheduled Cyprus Airways flight, operated on behalf of British European Airways, from London to Tel Aviv with stopovers in Rome, Athens, Istanbul, Ankara, and Nicosia. On 21 December 1961, a serious aviation accident occurred on this flight when the pilots lost control of the de Havilland DH-106 Comet 4B aircraft shortly after take-off from Ankara Esenboğa Airport. In the accident, 27 passengers were killed and there were 7 survivors.

Background

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a de Havilland DH-106 Comet 4B with the serial number 6456, whose first flight took place on 8 June 1961. On 26 June 1961, the aircraft was delivered to British European Airways and went into operation with them with the aircraft registration G-ARJM. The four-engine long-haul aircraft was equipped with four Rolls-Royce Avon 503 jet engines.

Crew and passengers

Twenty-seven passengers took the flight on the flight leg from Ankara to Nicosia. The flight was operated by British European Airways on behalf of Cyprus Airways. Onboard was a seven-person crew on board, consisting of a captain and two first officers, each from British European Airways, as well as four flight attendants from Cyprus Airways. The captain had logged 13,240 hours of flight experience, of which he completed 785 hours in the cockpit of the de Havilland Comet.

Accident

The flight was uneventful until it landed at Ankara Airport. The ground time between landing and taking off again for the onward flight to Nicosia was 46 minutes. During this time, there was light snowfall at the airport. The wings were covered with a thin layer of snow, but this was of no importance for later accident. The aircraft then taxied to the starting point of runway 21. The take-off ran until reaching the rotation point was normal in terms of the speeds achieved and the duration. One to two seconds after takeoff, the aircraft assumed an excessive climb angle. According to some eyewitnesses, it was twice the normal climbing angle, others said it was 45 to 50 degrees. Eyewitnesses stated that at this point the engine noise changed and one wing tilted. At an altitude of 450 feet, the aircraft, whose left wing was pointed downwards, experienced a stall. The plane fell flat to the ground and impacted 1,600 meters from the tower on a heading of 214 degrees at 11:43 p.m. local time. The accident killed all 7 crew members and 20 of the 27 passengers.

Cause

The investigation revealed that the cause was a disturbance in the pilot's artificial horizon, which caused him to pull the aircraft's nose steeply upwards after takeoff causing the aircraft to loose speed and stall.