| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 20 November 1969 |
| Summary | Undetermined; probable CFIT due to pilot error |
| Site | 13 kilometres (8.1 mi; 7.0 nmi) N of Lagos/Ikeja International Airport (LOS) |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Vickers VC10 |
| Operator | Nigeria Airways |
| Registration | 5N-ABD |
| Flight origin | London-Heathrow Airport (LHR/EGLL) |
| 1st stopover | Roma-Ciampino Airport (CIA/LIRA) |
| Last stopover | Kano International Airport (KAN/DNKN), Nigeria |
| Destination | Lagos/Ikeja International Airport (LOS/DNMM), Nigeria |
| Occupants | 87 |
| Passengers | 76 |
| Crew | 11 |
| Fatalities | 87 |
| Survivors | 0 |
On 20 November 1969, Nigeria Airways Flight 825, [1] a Vickers VC10 aircraft, crashed while on approach to Lagos International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria killing all 87 people on board.
Nigeria Airways Flight 825 was en route from London to Lagos with intermediate stops in Rome and Kano, piloted by captain Valentine Moore, 56, first officer John Wallis, 30, flight engineer George Albert Baker, 50, and navigator Basil Payton, 49. With its undercarriage down and its flaps partially extended, the VC-10 struck trees 13 kilometres (8.1 mi; 7.0 nmi) short of runway 19 at Lagos. The aircraft crashed into the ground, an area of thick forest and exploded. [2]
All 76 passengers and 11 crew on board were killed. Flight 825 was the first ever fatal crash involving the Vickers VC-10 as well as the deadliest accident or incident. [3] [4]
Immediately after the crash three automatic weapons were found in the wreckage. To counter a rumour that a fight between a prisoner and two guards caused the crash, a ballistics expert was consulted. It was learned none of the weapons had been recently fired. [5]
The cause of the crash could never be determined with certainty, the flight recorder was not working at the time of the crash, [6] but that it was most probably due to the flight crew being unaware of the aircraft's actual altitude during the final approach and allowing the aircraft to come below safe height when not in visual contact with the ground. [4] Fatigue may have also been a contributing factor. [7]
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1974.
Middle East Airlines – Air Liban S.A.L. (Arabic: طيران الشرق الأوسط ـ الخطوط الجوية اللبنانية, romanized: Ṭayyarān al-Sharq al-Awsaṭ – al-Khuṭūṭ al-jawiyyah al-lubnāniyyah), more commonly known as Middle East Airlines (MEA) (Arabic: طيران الشرق الأوسط, romanized: Ṭayyarān al-Sharq al-Awsaṭ), is the flag carrier of Lebanon, with its head office in Beirut, near Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport. It operates scheduled international flights to Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa from its base at Rafic Hariri International Airport.
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.
Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) is an international airport located in Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria, and is the major airport serving the entire state. The airport was initially built during World War II and is named after Murtala Muhammed (1938–1976), the fourth military ruler of Nigeria.
Port Harcourt International Airport is an international airport located in Omagwa, a suburb of Port Harcourt, the capital city of the Rivers State in Nigeria. The airport has two terminals for both international and domestic flights. The new International terminal was commissioned by the executive president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari on 25 October 2018. In 2009, the airport served 1,081,587 passengers, making it the third-busiest airport in Nigeria.
Tigerair Mandala was a low-cost carrier headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia. It was founded in 1969, by members of the Indonesian military dictatorship, as a full service airline. In 2006, as part of the ongoing reforms following the dictatorship ending in 1998, the military was forced to sell Mandala Airlines, with the new owners converting it to a low-cost carrier. In January 2011, facing bankruptcy, Mandala Airlines filed for protection from its creditors, and ceased operations. In May 2011, Singapore based Tiger Airways Holdings made an offer to purchase Mandala, but the transaction did not close until September 2011. The airline did not return to service until April 2012, renamed Tigerair Mandala, following an injection of fresh capital by Indonesian conglomerate Saratoga Investment Corp.
Nigeria Airways Ltd., more commonly known as Nigeria Airways, was a Nigerian airline. The company was founded in 1958 after the dissolution of West African Airways Corporation (WAAC). It held the name West African Airways Corporation Nigeria until 1971, when it was rebranded to the name it had until it ceased operations in 2003. The government of Nigeria owned a majority of the airline (51%) until 1961, when it boosted its shareholding in the company to 100% and made it the country's flag carrier. At the time of dissolution, the airline's headquarters were at Airways House in Abuja. Operations were concentrated at Murtala Muhammed International Airport and served both domestic and international destinations mainly concentrated in West Africa; the network also had points in Europe, North America and Saudi Arabia. The airline was managed by a number of foreign companies, including British Airways, KLM and South African Airways.
Central African Airways (CAA) was a supranational airline corporation serving as flag carrier for Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which were organised as the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, also known as the Central African Federation, from 1953 to 1963. Based in Salisbury, it offered an extensive network of domestic passenger and cargo flights, as well as international services to major cities in Southern and Central Africa, and a route to London. In 1960, CAA owned 15 aircraft and had 1,155 employees.
Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 was a chartered passenger flight from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to Sokoto, Nigeria, on 11 July 1991, which caught fire shortly after takeoff from King Abdulaziz International Airport and crashed while attempting to return for an emergency landing, killing all 247 passengers and 14 crew members on board. The aircraft was a Douglas DC-8 operated by Nationair Canada for Nigeria Airways. Flight 2120 is the deadliest accident involving a DC-8 and remains the deadliest aviation disaster involving a Canadian airline.
Central African Airways Flight 890, a Vickers Viscount 745D, crashed during a scheduled passenger flight from Wadi Halfa, Sudan, to Benghazi, Libya, about nine kilometers southeast of Benina International Airport in Libya. A total of forty-seven passengers and seven crew members were on board of whom only eighteen survived, making it the deadliest ever plane crash in Libya at the time of the accident. It still remains the deadliest accident for Central African Airways.
The Kano air disaster was a chartered Boeing 707 passenger flight on 22 January 1973 that crashed while attempting to land at Kano International Airport. It is the deadliest aviation disaster ever to take place in Nigeria, as 176 passengers and crew perished in the crash. There were 26 survivors.
Allied Air Flight 111 was a cargo flight operated by Lagos-based cargo airliner Allied Air, flying from Lagos, Nigeria to Accra, Ghana. The flight was operated with a Boeing 727 cargo aircraft. On 2 June 2012, the aircraft crashed on landing at Kotoka International Airport, killing ten people on the ground.
British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was the British state-owned airline created in 1939 by the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. It continued operating overseas services throughout World War II. After the passing of the Civil Aviation Act 1946, European and South American services passed to two further state-owned airlines, British European Airways (BEA) and British South American Airways (BSAA). BOAC absorbed BSAA in 1949, but BEA continued to operate British domestic and European routes for the next quarter century. The Civil Aviation Act 1971 merged BOAC and BEA, effective 31 March 1974, forming today's British Airways.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)citing pages 88–93 of "Silent Swift Superb: The Story of the Vickers VC10" by Scott Henderson