1920 Handley Page O/400 crash

1920 Handley Page O/400 crash

1920 Handley Page O/400 crash

Accident summary
Date	14 December 1920
Site	Golders Green, London Coordinates: 51°34′13.5″N 0°12′11.07″W / 51.570417°N 0.203075°W
Passengers	6
Crew	2
Fatalities	4
Survivors	4
Aircraft type	Handley Page O/400
Operator	Handley Page Transport
Tail number	G-EAMA
Flight origin	, London, England
Destination	Paris, France

The 1920 Handley Page O/400 crash occurred on 14 December 1920 when a Handley Page Transport Handley Page O/400 on a scheduled passenger flight from London to Paris with two crew and six passengers crashed at Golders Green in North London on take-off from . The crew and two passengers were killed the first fatal accident for the airline since the service had started in December 1919.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a Handley Page O/400 registered G-EAMA, a large seven-passenger twin-engined biplane airliner. It had been built by the Birmingham Carriage Company and delivered to the Royal Air Force as a bomber during the first world war. War surplus it was converted to a passenger configuration in 1919 by Handley Page and used by Handley Page Transport for scheduled passenger services.

Accident

Inquest

An inquest to the four deaths was held at Hendon on 16 December 1920. One of the survivors explained the events to the inquest, although he saw the engines being tested before the flight he did not hear any problems with them but the aircraft was not able to climb above 100 feet and suddenly struck a tree. After the aircraft had crashed he immediately climbed over the debris and escaped through a window. Other evidence came from another passenger, the dispatcher and one of the first to arrive on the scene, a ground engineer and the pilot who had flown the aircraft the previous day; all were questioned but the cause of the aircraft hitting a tree under 50 feet high was not determined. The coroner recorded a verdict that the deceased died from consequence of burns due to the crashing of the aeroplane to the ground after striking a tree, the coroner also said he did not have enough evidence to determine a cause.

References

Citations

Sources

• Jackson, A.J. (1973). British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 2. London: Putnam. pp. 382. ISBN 0 370 10010 7.

Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920_Handley_Page_O/400_crash