1948 Viking accident
BEA Viking mishap 1948
We all know that over a long time, memory can play tricks, but I recall this incident......Maybe someone was, or knew someone who was involved, and could throw some light on it.
In 1948, when I was around six years old, we lived between Breakspear Rd and Swakelys Rd Ickenham, and on the final approach path to the South Easterly runway Northolt. One day that year, a BEA Viking crashed, or possibly crash landed, in our neighbour's field. The impression that remains is that there was no significant fire damage ( ? ) and that the rear fuselage was detached and inverted - the foreward section was roof up. For a brief period, access to the partially intact wreck was somehow not denied, and naturally enough was a huge exitement to us children. ( probably not to our parents and the older generation who had seen their fill of drama and tradgedy during the recently finished war ) One of my older brothers retrieved a couple of charts from the cockpit, and another made us all gloves from scavenged insulation. There was clear evidence of the human trauma, which in retrospect, and rather troublingly so, doesn't seem to have worried us much. I wonder what became of the occupants, and if the cause was established?