Crash of BOAC Britannia G-AOVD 24.12.58
I've just been reading up on this crash which happened in my local area and have a few queries. Bear in mind I don't have sight of the offical accident report and it's not on the AIB website.
Recap: This Britannia was on a test flight (flight no. ?) and was attempting to land at Hurn (now Bournemouth) Airport in fog. The crash was attributed to an error in which the altimeter height was misread by 10,000ft.
Queries:
1) Why was it heading for Hurn when it was known to be affected by fog as well as Heathrow from where it departed? The BOAC maintenance facility at Hurn had long since departed so it can't be for that reason.
2) From it's crash location of Sopley park, now Moorlands College, it would appear to have been heading approx. NNW. over Burley Lane as it was apparently heading directly for Sopley School. I can't corroborate this though as I don't know what route the test flight took from Heathrow.
As this point is only about 3 miles from the runway 26 threshold, was it trying to join downwind for this runway? The alternatives could be it was heading for the 'HRN' beacon to join overhead before making an approach or that it was heading for nearby Ibsley reporting point to the north.
The reason the above is relevant is directly connected to the issue of height. The crew thought they were at 13,000ft when they requested descent to 3,000ft but were only 3 minutes from Sopley where they crashed. That means they were almost on top of their destination when they requested descent.
3)
Related to the above is what were ATC seeing? I'm not sure if the flight was under the control of Hurn or Ibsley but was there no transponder technology in 1958 that allowed ATC to see the Britannia's height? Regardless of their height, ATC had a flight very close to the airfield but, on the face of it, didn't seem to have a full picture of what was happening. Was this normal for ATC in 1958?
I'm not sure of the flight number for this accident but I'm sure posters will identify with this particular accident. Any information or a copy of the accident report would be gratefully received.