G-ANTB
14th April 1965 is a date forever etched in my memory. I was working as a traffic agent with BUA(C.I.)A awaiting my course start date for flying training at Oxford. It was late evening and I was the only person on duty together with a supervisor awaiting the arrival of an extra flight from ORY, everything was delayed after a couple of days of Jersey fog and this was he last arrival of the day.
Just after the expected ETA the immigration officer on duty came into the office and told us that the Dak had crashed on the approach and that the AFS reported a fierce fire at the scene and it didn't look good for the occupants.
As a (so called) french speaker I was given the harrowing task of telling the few meeters and greeters of the situation whch of course was not pleasant, especially for an 18 year old. Fortunately the States police turned up quite quickly and relieved me of my duties.
As far as the accident is concerned then I know little more than the above link reports, I do remember though that the crew had been on an unscheduled night-stop the night before in GCI due to the fog. They had transited Jersey earlier that day and I had boarded the pax and given them the ships papers and was therefore the last person to see them alive on the island. We heard or saw nothing of the impact due to the very low visibility at the time.
As an interesting aside it was always said that if he top of the church spire in St. Peters was invisible then the airfield was below limits. this didn't apply on that day as the church was on the other side of the runway and far out of sight.
The stewardess was a French girl and if I remember correctly later became a news reader on Channel TV, or something similar.