Handley Page H.P.81 Hermes

Falcon Airways - UK

Following an uneventful flight from Barcelona, the crew completed the approach and the landing on a wet runway. After touchdown, the pilot applied brakes according to the procedures but the aircraft was unable to stop within the remaining distance, overran, struck an embankment and came to rest with its nose on a railway track. All 76 occupants were evacuated safely while the aircraft was considered as damaged beyond repair.

Skyways of London

Upon landing at Heathrow Airport, the right main landing gear collapsed. The four engine aircraft skidded on runway before coming to rest. All six crew members were uninjured while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

Skyways of London

The aircraft took off on a test flight from Stansted Airport at 1059LT and climbed steeply towards the northwest. A few minutes later it was observed approaching the airport from the west at a height of approximately 1,500 feet. At 1113LT the Air Traffic Control Tower received a radio call from the aircraft in which the captain declared an emergency and said that the controls were jammed. At about the same time the aircraft was seen some 6 miles northeast of the airfield descending in a series of dives and climbs. It crashed in a field shortly thereafter killing the crew of three. The greater part of the wreckage was destroyed by fire.

Airwork - UK

The Hermes aircraft was on a non-scheduled passenger flight from Blackbushe Airport, England to Singapore with stops at Karachi, Delhi and Calcutta. While making a radar assisted approach to run way 01R at Dum Dum Airport, Calcutta, it collided (at 0000 hour GMT) with a Dakota aircraft which was lined up on runway 01L. The Dakota was destroyed and four members of the crew, the only occupants on board, were fatally injured. The Hermes sustained substantial damage but was not repaired. Two passengers were injured.

Britavia

The aircraft was flying under charter to the Air Ministry and had flown from Idris Airport, Tripoli with a crew of 6 and 74 passengers, nearly all members of servicemen's families. Shortly before midnight, on landing at Blackbushe in poor visibility, the aircraft undershot the runway, hit a beech tree 3,617 feet short of the threshold, swung sharply to port, came down among pine trees about 3,000 feet from the beech tree and caught fire. Three crew members were killed by the impact and four children lost their lives due to fire.

Britavia

The approach to Karachi International Airport was attempted in poor weather conditions and a limited visibility due to heavy rain falls. On final, the left windshield wiper failed and the crew did not realized he was approaching Faisal AFB runway 08 instead of Karachi-Intl Airpor runway 07, when the airplane struck the ground and crashed short of runway threshold at Faisal Airbase (Drigh Road). All 72 occupants were evacuated safely while the airplane was damaged beyond repair.

Airwork - UK

The aircraft, engaged on a non-scheduled flight from Blackbushe, England to Wadi Seidna, Khartoum, via Malta, took off from Blackbushe Airport at 2025LT on August 24 with 51 passengers and 6 crew. The flight was normal until 0025GMT when the aircraft reached a position about 20 miles west of Trapani. At this time, No. 2 and No. 3 engines showed signs of abnormal functioning and were deliberately shut down and the propellers feathered. Without electrical power except from the batteries which were depleted of their charge by use of the radio equipment for emergency signals, Nos. 1 and 4 engines began to show signs of abnormal functioning. At approximately 00300LT, a ditching was carried out on the sea between the Port of Trapani and the island of Formica. Four passengers were drowned and two missing, one stewardess was also missing.

Airwork - UK

The aircraft was performing a special flight from Blackbushe to Fayid AFB in Egypt with an intermediate stop in Luqa, Malta, carrying 68 British soldiers and a crew of eight bound for Egypt to assist the troops after the coup done by General Nasser. For diplomatic reason, the aircraft was wearing the military WZ839 registration instead of the civil G-ALDB one. While flying south of Paris, the engine number four exploded. The propeller blades detached and hit the engine number three. In such conditions, the pilot-in-command reduced his altitude and attempted to divert to Pithiviers aerodrome for an emergency landing. Following a stable approach, the aircraft landed on a grassy runway and came to rest in flames. All 76 occupants were able to evacuate the cabin safely before the aircraft would be partially destroyed by fire. It is reported that some of the occupants were slightly injured.

British Overseas Airways Corporation - BOAC

The aircraft took off on a scheduled service from Tripoli to Kano with a crew of eight and ten passengers. The weather forecast indicated fine weather en route and thunderstorms in the Kano area. Due to faulty use of the variation setting control on the Gyrosyn compass and the inability of the crew to determine the aircraft's position properly by the standard methods, the aircraft, with practically no fuel and over the desert, made a wheels-up landing in a wide depression littered with shifting sand-dunes surrounded by rocky escarpments. The port wing was torn off and the remainder of the aircraft slewed left and came to a standstill without breaking up. No fire resulted and all passengers and crew were evacuated without difficulty. Six were slightly injured but the copilot died five days later as a result of exhaustion brought about by strain and heat.

Handley Page Aircraft Company Ltd

First prototype of the Hermes, this model H.P.68 (s/n 68/1) was later renamed H.P.81. Both crew members left Radlett Airfield to complete the first test flight on this new airplane. Few minutes after takeoff, while cruising in the vicinity of the aerodrome, the four engine aircraft went out of control and crashed in a field located 5 km from the airport. Both occupants were killed.