Amsterdam – Manchester

On March 14, 1957 at 01:46 PM, Amsterdam – Manchester experienced a crash involving Vickers Viscount, operated by British European Airways - BEA, with the event recorded near Manchester Great Manchester.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

20 people were known to be on board, 22 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 110.0%.

Crew on board: 5, crew fatalities: 5, passengers on board: 15, passenger fatalities: 15, other fatalities: 2.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. The aircraft was reaching the end of a scheduled passenger flight from Schiphol, Amsterdam, with a crew of 5 and 15 passengers aboard. Until the aircraft was roughly a mile from the threshold of the runway it was apparently making a perfectly normal approach, then it made a banked turn to starboard and continued to descend until the starboard wing tip struck the ground. With the starboard wing furrowing the earth and breaking up, the aircraft, obviously completely out of control, went on until it struck some houses, demolishing two of them (in one of which a woman and her infant son were killed). The aircraft came to rest in the ruins of the houses and immediately caught fire and set fire to the houses. All the crew members and passengers were killed in the accident. The position of the final crash was about 900 yards short of the runway and 200 yards to the right of its extended centre line.

Aircraft reference details include registration G-ALWE, MSN 4, year of manufacture 1952.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 53.4738°, -2.2423°.