Blackbushe – Tripoli

On May 1, 1957 at 10:20 PM, Blackbushe – Tripoli experienced a crash involving Vickers Viking, operated by Eagle Aviation - UK, with the event recorded near Blackbushe Hampshire.

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

35 people were known to be on board, 34 fatalities were recorded, 1 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 97.1%.

Crew on board: 5, crew fatalities: 5, passengers on board: 30, passenger fatalities: 29, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. The aircraft was on a trooping flight from Blackbushe Airport to Idris in Tripoli and was carrying a crew of four, one supernumerary crew as passenger and thirty passengers. A few seconds after 2214LT the aircraft was observed to make its run and to take off. At 2216, it called the control tower and passed the following message, "I have got a port engine failure I am making a left-hand circuit to come in again". Having completed the downwind and base legs of this circuit, the aircraft crashed in a wood just as, or just after, it had turned onto the final approach and at a distance of about 1 200 yards from the threshold of the runway. Thirty-four of the thirty-five persons on board lost their lives.

Aircraft reference details include registration G-AJBO, MSN 241, year of manufacture 1947.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 51.3242°, -0.8451°.