Flight

Viscount aeroplane type 803, registration: EI-AOM departed from Cork Airport at 10.32 hours en route for London operating as Aer Lingus Flight 712. The take-off was normal. The flight was cleared by Air Traffic Control to proceed via Airways Blue 10, Green 1 at flight level 170 (17,000'). At 10.38, when the aeroplane had passed through 7,000', clearance on course to Tuskar was given. At 10.40, after the flight had reported it was by Youghal at 7,500' climbing to 17,000', ATC Cork suggested that if desired, the flight could route direct to Strumble. No direct acceptance of this suggestion was received. At 10.57.07 the flight reported "by Bannow (a reporting point on the route at 51º 68' N - 06º 12' W) level 170 (17,000') estimating Strumble at 03". The flight was instructed to change to the London Airways frequency of 131.2, and this was acknowledged by the reply "131.2". The time of this call was 10.57.29. At 10.58.02, London Radar intercepted a call (garbled and simultaneous with another call) which appeared to be, and was later confirmed as "Echo India Alpha Oscar Mike with you", and eight (8) seconds later, a call was intercepted which was interpreted as "Five thousand feet descending spinning rapidly". This call was also heard by another Aer Lingus aircraft en route Dublin-Bristol (The word "Five" was later, after repeated acoustic analysis, interpreted as more likely to be the word "twelve".) This was the last call received from the aircraft. At 11.10, London ATC advised Shannon ATC that they had no radio contact with EI-AOM. At 11.13 London advised Shannon that they had requested Aer Lingus Flight EI 362 (Dublin-Bristol) to search west of Strumble. This flight descended to 500' in good visibility, but saw nothing. Between 11.13 and 11.25, efforts were made to make radio contact with the flight, with no result, and at 11.25 a full alert was declared. At 12.36 a report from the U.K. was received by Haulbowline that wreckage had been sighted in position 51º 57' N, 06º 10' W Rosslare Lifeboat was proceeding, but two surface vessels within 4 nautical miles of this position saw nothing. At 12.52 hours the Air Corps reported that they had dispatched a Dove aeroplane and a helicopter to search. At 13.10 hours there were ten aircraft from the U.K. in the search area. At 15.30 hours the reported sighting of wreckage was cancelled. Nothing positive was discovered on this day. On 25 March 1968, at 06.15 hours, the search was resumed by aircraft and ships from the U.K., and at 12.41 hours, wreckage was sighted and bodies recovered from a position 6 nautical miles north-east of Tuskar Rock. More floating wreckage was reported scattered for a further 6 nautical miles north-west of this point. The Irish Naval Service ship, L.E. Macha, which had been on patrol off the north-west coast, joined in the search on 26 March 1968, and took over duty as Search Controller. A total of 13 bodies was eventually recovered in the search during the next few days, together with a quantity of light floating wreckage-mostly cabin furnishings, and some baggage, seat cushions, and the wheels and inner cylinder from the port main landing gear. One additional body was recovered later. The position of the main wreckage remained obscure in spite of prolonged and diligent search by sonar equipped ships of the British Navy and trawling by Irish trawlers-"Glendalough" from Kilmore Quay and "Cu na Mara" of the Irish Fisheries Board (An Bord Iascaigh Mhara). Eventually, on 5 June 1968 "Glendalough" hauled in position 1.72 nautical miles from Tuskar Rock with Tuskar bearing 280º, in 39 fathoms and brought up a quantity of positively identifiable wreckage. The "Cu na Mara" in the same location also brought up wreckage. On the following day more wreckage was brought up by these trawlers, and divers from H.M.S. Reclaim confirmed a mass of wreckage "like a scrap yard" in this position. Subsequent salvage operations confirmed that a major portion of the aircraft at least was located here. Two eyewitnesses, one a sailor on a coastal vessel, who thought he had seen an aircraft crash into the sea but did not report it at the time, and another witness on shore, who saw a splash in the sea near the Tuskar Rock, gave the time as between 11.10 and 11.15. The position lines of these two witnesses approximately cross the location where the main wreckage was eventually found. The aircraft was totally demolished by violent impact with the sea. The bulk of the wreckage was found in 39 fathoms of water with all parts lying in close proximity. About 60-65% of the aircraft (by weight) was recovered, and included the major parts of three engines, a few parts of the fourth, and all four propellers, the almost complete primary structure of the wings from tip to tip, and the fin and rudder. None of the wreckage displayed any evidence of fire or explosion. No part of the tail planes or elevators were recovered, with the exception of small portions of the spring tab and trim tab. The recovered wreckage revealed extensive damage to the whole structure, which virtually disintegrated.

While cruising under VFR mode in foggy conditions, the crew failed to realize his altitude was insufficient when the airplane struck the slope of a mountain shrouded in clouds and located in the region of Weston. The aircraft was destroyed and all seven occupants have been killed.

Crashed in unknown circumstances while completing a spraying mission in Awarua, 10 km south of Invercargill. The aircraft was destroyed and the pilot was injured.

En route, the pilot encountered engine problems and elected to make an emergency landing when he lost control of the airplane that crashed in a field in Liberdade do Sul. A passenger was rescued while three other occupants were killed.

The airplane departed USS Yorktown on a maritime patrol flight off the North Vietnam coast. While cruising by night, the crew reported problems with the radar. Shortly later, the airplane crashed into the sea some 40 km off Hòn Mê Island, North Vietnam. Three days later, part of the starboard wing was found but no trace of the four crew members.
Crew:
Cdr Donald Richard Hubbs,
Lt(jg) Lee David Benson,
AX2 Randall John Nightingale,
ADR Thomas David Barber.

While on a cargo flight from Guayaquil to Arica, the crew encountered marginal weather conditions when the airplane struck the slope of Mt Maldito (3,501 meters high) located in the region of Tacna, Peru. The wreckage was found a month later, on April 16. All four crew members have been killed.

The crew was involved in a radio intelligence mission over Laos. While cruising at an altitude of 9,500 feet, the airplane was hit by enemy fire and the left engine caught fire. The crew was able to leave the combat zone and to return to South Vietnam before completing an emergency landing at the special forces camp of Ben Het. The aircraft crash landed and was destroyed while all six crew members escaped uninjured.

The airplane departed Tbilisi Airport at 1039LT on a cargo flight to Yerevan, carrying five crew members and a load of various goods for a total weight of 2,394 kilos. The assigned altitude of 3,000 meters was reached 17 minutes later and the crew continued to the south under VFR mode. The airplane passed over Idzhevan VOR at 1108LT and six minutes later, the crew was cleared to descent to 1,800 meters by the approach ATC. Between 1116LT and 1119LT, the crew reported twice that the weather conditions deteriorated with low clouds and requested the permission to return to Tbilisi under VFR at 3,000 meters. A minute later, while cruising at the altitude of 2,265 meters, the left wing struck the west slope of Mt Getantag. The airplane continued for 130 meters then crashed in flames. The flight engineer was seriously injured while four other occupants were killed. Few hours later, the only survivor died from his injuries.

While flying off Chicago, the twin engine aircraft owned by E. H. Litchfield went out of control and crashed in unknown circumstances into Lake Michigan. Five bodies were found while one was missing. The wreckage was not found.

Flight UM507 was a scheduled domestic flight from Manila International Airport to Lapu-Lapu/Mactan International Airport. Before departure the pilot was briefed by the Air Manila dispatcher on the existence of a cold front across the route and was provided with an en-route weather forecast valid from 1200 to 2400 hours which mentioned "Isolated thunderstorm over Eastern Visayas and generally fair elsewhere". No information regarding thunderstorms on the route was given to the pilot. The flight took off from Manila at 1814 hours and was cleared to Mactan at FL 130 by the ATC, via Track 5, Amber 4 and Amber 1. The flight plan proposed an airspeed of 210 kt and an estimated time en route of 1 hour 45 minutes. Normal radio contact was maintained at all time between the flight and the air traffic services. At 1908 hours the flight reported over Romblon at FL 130, estimating Mactan at 1954 hours. This was the last message from the aircraft. Several residents of Ibajay, a coastal town in Aklan, stated that at approximately 1918 hours they had heard a sound similar to that of an aircraft flying at high altitude in a southeast direction along the coastline. They then heard several loud explosions and saw fireballs falling into the sea. They all agreed that the initial fire- ball they saw could not have been the result of a prolonged fire, but rather a small fire which rapidly developed into a large orange-yellow-red ball and then disappeared. After a few moments, smaller fireballs emerged from the large one, some dying out before reaching the sea, some reaching the sea and developing into a large fire. At the same time a large object resembling an airplane was seen to emerge from thick clouds and fall into the sea followed by a trail of smaller objects. Approximately one hour later two bodies were recovered from approximately 2 km offshore of Bo. Colong-Colong, Ibajay, Aklan.