British Eagle Airways - BEA

Vickers Viscount

While cruising at an altitude of 21,000 feet south of Ingolstadt, the pilot informed ATC that a fire erupted on board, declared an emergency and requested the permission to divert to Munich Airport. The crew immediately started an emergency descent when control was lost. The airplane entered a dive, partially disintegrated in the air and eventually crashed in flames on a highway. Debris were found in an open field and the main wreckage on the Munich - Nuremberg highway. The tail was found about three km from the main wreckage. Rescue teams were hampered in their mission and it was really difficult to reach the crash site as the highway was totally jammed by cars from people living on holidays. None of the 48 occupants survived the crash. At the time of the accident, weather conditions were considered as good despite broken clouds from 800 feet till 15,000 feet.

Bristol Britannia

British Eagle Flight 802 departed London-Heathrow Airport at 12:04 GMT with destination Innsbruck, Austria. At 13:35 the flight contacted Munich ATC and reported over the Kempten NDB nine minutes later, changing its IFR flight plan to VFR from Kempten to Innsbruck. Two minutes later the crew contacted Innsbruck and reported descending VMC directly to Seefeld. Over the Innsbruck VOR at FL110, the airplane was still unable to break the clouds. The last message from the flight was at 14:12 when it reported at FL100. The descent was continued until the airplane collided with the steep eastern flank of the Glungezer Mountain at an altitude of 2601 m (8500 ft). An avalanche occurred, carrying most of the aircraft debris downhill for about 400 m. All 83 occupants were killed.