British European Airways (BEA), formally British European Airways Corporation, was a British airline which existed from 1946 until 1974.
The Vickers Vanguard was a short/medium-range turboprop airliner designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Vickers-Armstrongs.
The Vickers VC.1 Viking is a British twin-engine short-range airliner derived from the Vickers Wellington bomber and built by Vickers-Armstrongs Limited at Brooklands near Weybridge in Surrey. After the Second World War, the Viking was an important airliner with British airlines, pending the development of turboprop aircraft like the Viscount. An experimental airframe was fitted with Rolls-Royce Nene turbojets and first flown in 1948 as the world's first pure jet transport aircraft. Military developments were the Vickers Valetta and the Vickers Varsity.
Starways was a British airline which operated from 1948 until 1963. The company offered freight transport, passenger charter services and serviced internal and international scheduled routes.
Alliance Air Flight 7412 was a scheduled Indian domestic passenger flight from Calcutta to Delhi, operated by Indian regional airliner Alliance Air. On 17 July 2000, while on approach to its first stopover in Patna, the Boeing 737-2A8 operating the route nose-dived and crashed into a residential area in Patna, killing 60 people including 5 on the ground.
The 1959 Turkish Airlines Gatwick crash occurred on 17 February 1959, near London Gatwick Airport to a Turkish Airlines Vickers Viscount Type 793 on an international charter flight from Esenboğa International Airport in Ankara, Turkey, to London Heathrow Airport United Kingdom, carrying the Turkish prime minister and a party of government officials. The Viscount crashed in a wood 3 miles (4.8 km) from the threshold of Gatwick runway during its final approach to land in extensive fog. Five of the eight crew and nine of the 16 passengers died in the crash. The prime minister was among the ten survivors.
British Airways Flight 38 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, China, to London Heathrow Airport in London, United Kingdom. On 17 January 2008, the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft operating the flight crashed just short of the runway while landing at Heathrow. No fatalities occurred; of the 152 people on board, 47 sustained injuries, one serious. It was the first time in the aircraft type's history that a Boeing 777 was declared a hull loss and subsequently written off.
BOAC Flight 712 was a British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) service operated by a Boeing 707-465 from London Heathrow Airport bound for Sydney via Zurich and Singapore. On Monday 8 April 1968, it suffered an engine failure on takeoff that quickly led to a major fire. The engine fell off the aircraft in flight. After the aircraft had made a successful emergency landing, confusion over checklists and distractions from the presence of a check pilot contributed to the deaths of five of the 127 on board. The direct cause of the fire was the failure of a compressor wheel, due to metal fatigue.
Hunting-Clan Air Transport was a wholly private, British independent airline that was founded in the immediate post-World War II period. It began trading on 1 January 1946 as Hunting Air Travel Ltd. It was a subsidiary of the Hunting Group of companies, which had come from the shipping industry and could trace its history back to the 19th century. The newly formed airline's first operating base was at Bovingdon Airport in Southeast England. Its main activities were contract, scheduled and non-scheduled domestic and international air services that were initially operated with Douglas Dakota and Vickers Viking piston airliners from the company's Bovingdon base. A change of name to Hunting Air Transport occurred in 1951. By that time, the airline had emerged as one of the healthiest and most securely financed independent airlines in Britain. In October 1953, the firm's name changed to Hunting-Clan Air Transport, as a result of an agreement between the Hunting Group and the Clan Line group of companies to invest £500,000 each in a new company named Hunting-Clan Air Holdings Ltd, the holding company for the combined group's air transport interests. Apart from Hunting-Clan Air Transport itself, this included Field Aircraft Services Ltd, the Hunting group's aircraft maintenance arm. In 1960, Hunting-Clan Air Transport merged with the Airwork group to form British United Airways (BUA).
The 1957 Nutts Corner BEA Viscount crash was a British European Airways (BEA) flight from London to Belfast that crashed at Nutts Corner Airport on 23 October 1957, killing all seven passengers and crew.
The 1950 Heathrow BEA Vickers Viking crash occurred on 31 October 1950 when a Vickers Viking operated by British European Airways (BEA) crashed at London Airport in heavy fog. The aircraft was on a scheduled flight between Paris and London's Northolt airport and 28 of the 30 passengers and crew on board were killed.
South African Airways Flight 228 was a scheduled flight from Jan Smuts International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, to London Heathrow International Airport in England. The plane operating the flight, which was only 6 weeks old, flew into the ground soon after take-off after a scheduled stopover in Windhoek, South West Africa on 20 April 1968. Five passengers survived, while 123 people died. The subsequent investigation determined that the accident was attributable largely to pilot error; the manufacturer subsequently also recognised the lack of a ground proximity warning system in its aircraft. The accident is the deadliest aviation accident to date in Namibia.
The 1957 Blackbushe Viking accident occurred on 1 May 1957 when an Eagle Aviation twin-engined Vickers VC.1 Viking 1B registered G-AJBO named "John Benbow" crashed into trees near Blackbushe Airport, located in Hampshire, England, on approach following a suspected engine failure on take-off. All five crew and 29 of the 30 passengers were killed. The aircraft also carried the RAF serial number XF629 allotted to this aircraft for use during trooping flights only.
On 5 January 1953, a Vickers Viking airliner operated by British European Airways crashed on approach to Belfast Nutts Corner Airport, Northern Ireland. The aircraft was on a domestic flight from London Northolt Airport with 31 passengers and 4 crew on board. Twenty-four of the passengers and three crew members died in the accident.
The 1954 Prestwick air disaster occurred in the early morning of Christmas Day, 1954. A British Overseas Airways Corporation Boeing 377 Stratocruiser crashed on landing at Prestwick Airport, Scotland; 28 of the 36 on board were killed.
The 1956 London Heathrow Avro Vulcan crash was a military aviation accident that occurred at Heathrow Airport on 1 October 1956 when Avro Vulcan B.1 XA897 crashed while attempting to land in poor weather. The captain and co-pilot ejected safely but the remaining four crew were killed.
The 1963 Ankara mid-air collision occurred on Friday, 1 February 1963 over Ankara, Turkey when Middle East Airlines Flight 265, a Vickers 754D Viscount completing a flight from Cyprus, came in for landing and collided in the air with a Turkish Air Force Douglas C-47A; after which both planes fell directly onto the city below them. In total, 104 people died in the accident, including 87 on the ground.
On May 20, 1958 a Vickers Viscount airliner operating Capital Airlines Flight 300 was involved in a mid-air collision with a United States Air Force T-33 jet trainer on a proficiency flight in the skies above Brunswick, Maryland. All 11 people on board the Viscount and one of the two crew in the T-33 were killed in the accident. Flight 300 was the second of four fatal crashes in the space of two years involving Capital Airlines Vickers Viscounts; the other were Capital Airlines Flight 67 Capital Airlines Flight 75 and Capital Airlines Flight 20.
