Luton - Wolverhampton

On April 9, 1970 at 10:02 AM, Luton - Wolverhampton experienced a crash involving De Havilland DH.104 Dove, operated by McAlpine Aviation, with the event recorded near Wolverhampton West Midlands.

The flight was categorized as positioning and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a city crash site.

2 people were known to be on board, 3 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 150.0%.

Crew on board: 2, crew fatalities: 2, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 1.

The listed crash cause is human factor. The crew was completing a positioning flight from Luton to Wolverhampton to carry two members of the Dowty Group (owner of the aircraft) who wanted to fly to France. A first attempt to land was abandoned due to poor weather conditions and the crew climbed to 2,500 feet before initiating a second attempt to land that was also abandoned. During the third attempt, the crew failed to realize his altitude was insufficient when the aircraft struck the roof of a house and crashed in flames 600 yards short of runway 25 threshold. The aircraft was destroyed as well as the house and both crew members were killed plus one people in the house. Two other person on the ground were injured.

Aircraft reference details include registration G-AVHV, MSN 04542, year of manufacture 1967.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 52.5848°, -2.1276°.