Fight To The Death | British European Airways Flight 548

Still remember coming back from holiday with my parents at 10 years of age and seeing the wreckage of the Trident in the field adjacent to the road.

I don't like the idea of that noise abatement procedure. Pilots need to be focused on safely controlling the plane. Making them worry about something superfluous to safety going on their record, especially during takeoffs and landings, is frankly ridiculous.

I was 14 at the time and remember this cash happening. A few of us were on our bikes near the crash and hot footed over to the site. I can see the aircraft to this day having just gone down, it was horrific. The emergency services took their time in getting there as they were given the wrong location. Apparently they were beginning to think that it was a false alarm because they could find the crash site. Eventually they did of course (communication wasn’t brilliant in those days) and we, and many others who got there first were ushered away pretty quickly. A sight I’ll never forget.

Bonechilling. Everything that could go wrong in this Case did, pilot anger, crew mismanagement, failure of Health of a crewman, and poor mechanical design. Truly dreadful. Great video as always allec, rip to all involved!

The Captain was ex-RAF and very senior to the other crew members. He had a reputation of being a bully and it was the norm at the time, not to question the actions of a senior officer, much like in the armed forces. I saw the glow from this accident as a kid, from my bedroom window. I still remember it vividly

I have to defend Captain Key regarding some of the comments made. Yes, he was old school, a world away from the two young co-pilots, he was a very experienced Captain and known to be by the book and dedicated to his job. I certainly feel that he was under stress that day; having been on an airport standby for most of it, the confrontation with the militant co-pilot in the crew room before his flight, then having a very young and inexperienced co-pilot sat next to him along with the poor weather. Like most accidents it was a combination of events that lead up to it. He was four years away from retirement and no doubt keen to maintain his loyalty to the company. In those days before CRM you never questioned the Captain or queried his actions; there was a culture of fear in some ways; all that changed after Papa India; as did crew medicals. Although Key had a medical and was fit to fly, he never undertook a stressed ECG which could have detected his heart condition and likely grounded him. The overwhelming sound of the stall warning horn going off, the stick shaker and the stick push all happening within seconds must have been too much for Key’s heart and being a good pilot he instinctively grabbed the control column to maintain flight not realising that someone had retracted the droops far too early. It was never determined who moved the droop lever; it could have been the co-pilot or Key himself. The Trident was peculiar in the sense that it had two levers one for the droops and one for the flaps; unlike modern jets that have a single lever for both. It was common to mistake the two and some close calls did occur on previous flights. After the accident a bulk was fitted to the droop lever to make if physically impossible to move it below 6,000 feet or 225 knots. If you want to hear the sound of a stall warning horn in a Trident; look up Trident three G-AWZI on YouTube for a demonstration and also the stick shake. You may be able to appreciate how overwhelming it can be. Next year 2022 will be 50 years since the accident and under the 50 year rule more documentation will be released.

I live near Heathrow and I use to walk past the area where the plane crashed, this was about 30 years ago, but there was a real eerie quietness walking past that area and I had that feeling I was being watched. I only found out where it actually crashed a few years after walking past this area. Fascinating video, many thanks.

I’m so sorry this was a crew with “bad mojo” among them. No one deserves to die like this. Allec, you are the ONLY Aviation channel that explains in such detail that even I, a non-Aviator, can understand. Thank you for that.

Allec, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to you for all of the effort you spend making these videos. With out exception, I have found each one to be well made, and makes me feel like I am in the cockpit. Great work!

Back at the end of May, I had a heart attack resulting in a quadruple bypass. It was painful but I was still functioning, setting up a glass of aspirin, packing a bag, calling for an ambulance, and even going to the loo. If captain Key was having a heart attack, he was possibly functioning, but unable to make normal radio conversation. The other cockpit crew would probably not know that he was having a heart attack, and thought that his terseness was due to anger, not pain. He really should have said something. Without a CVR it's impossible to know what conversations did take place.

I remember this very well from the time. At the very hour of this flight, I was flying in a De Haviland Comet from Tangiers to London Gatwick. There was much talk at the time as to whether the current Noise Abatement Climb procedures were correct.

The captain was stressed and may have had a heart attack or something close. Sad that we'll never know for sure. Shows why you have to keep personal disputes out of the cockpit at all times. So sad. Nice video, Allec-

It says near Staines. In fact it was in Staines by the A30 main road near what was the Crooked Billet Public House, also when my brother inlaw was a fireman it was his first shout. And my late neibour was one of the first nurses on the seen, and never flew again after that.

Everyday, thousands of motorists drive the section of the A30 in Staines past this crash site, most having no idea that England's worst plane crash took place just a hundred yards off the roadway (Pan Am 103 was Britain's worst but that wasn't in England.) When this Trident crashed, it had very little forward speed and sort of pancaked down on the field, and was only about two minutes into its flight from Heathrow. Hundreds of local people came out to see the wreck, in some cases impeding first responders from getting to the site. This crash highlighted the importance of cockpit resource management, among other things, and for junior pilots being able to challenge senior pilots in a non-hostile environment. We'll never know exactly what was going on in the cockpit of BEA 548 but what is known is that the three men up front were flying a perfectly good airplane...which makes this all the more tragic.

Fatal mixture of human stress, both mentally and physically, inexperience and poor technical design. Under such condition, if something can go wrong, it will go wrong. R.I.P.

It was a miracle nobody on the ground was killed, the Trident hit a small field surrounded by houses, I think even overhead cables running across the field were untouched.

I remember this crash. Every passenger was found just sitting in their seats, dead. RIP

In 1972, I was 15 years old and lived not far from where this sad event took place and still remember seeing the incident on TV news! I also used to cycle many times to Heathrow Airport from my house around that time, to go plane spotting for the day with my mate. Consequently, we used to see many planes taking off from the same runway that this Trident did i.e. Runway 27R. RIP to all!

I can definitely see the two “kids” in the cockpit being intimidated by the captain. I’m retired law enforcement and I was 22 when I got hired. I would’ve never dreamed of standing up to a senior officer, let alone an officer with rank. Most of them were Vietnam Vets and weren’t about to take any crap from a rookie.

One of those early accidents where a CVR would have been so useful. The UK Channel 4 documentary series from the 90s "Black Box" covers this incident really well. A very good video, thank you.