Luqa – Stansted

On February 18, 1956 at 01:23 PM, Luqa – Stansted experienced a crash involving Avro 685 York, operated by Scottish Airlines, with the event recorded near Luqa All Malta.

The flight was categorized as charter/taxi (non scheduled revenue flight) and the reported phase was takeoff (climb) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

50 people were known to be on board, 50 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 5, crew fatalities: 5, passengers on board: 45, passenger fatalities: 45, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. The aircraft, which had arrived at Malta at 1046LT on the same day, took off from Luqa Aerodrome, Malta on a flight to Stansted, England. The aircraft became airborne about two thirds of the way down the runway and the undercarriage was retracted. About this time black smoke was seen coming from the No. 1 engine. The aircraft instead of turning to starboard as instructed by the Ground Control appeared to drift to port. The port wing dipped steeply and at 1222-23 hours the aircraft nose-dived into the ground on the cliffs near Zurrieq and blew up on impact. The crew of 5 and 45 passengers were all killed.

Aircraft reference details include registration G-ANSY, MSN MW193, year of manufacture 1945.