1948 KLM Constellation crash near Prestwick

[bobdh478]

I have recently renewed my interest in the accident involving the above a/c. I was looking at a totally unrelated matter and re read some of the internet stuff. I've found quite a bit about it, but I keep coming back to the official inquiry. Now, along with most historical air accidents, it seems that these are not available, or if they are, I can't find them. Does anyone know where full verbatim reports can be found? It seems odd that railway accidents going back to the start of railways are freely available whilst accidents before a certain date are not.
My other inquiry involved a possible book or pamphlet, produced locally (Ayshire) some years ago. It may have had a title along the lines of 'Stars Falling', but I'm not sure. Can anyone help with this?

[Herod]

The only book I can think of is "Stardust Falling", concerning the crash of a BSAA Lancastrian in the Andes. My copy (2002) is published by Transworld Publishers, of London, but I have no idea where it was actually printed.

[DaveReidUK]

I have recently renewed my interest in the accident involving the above a/c. I was looking at a totally unrelated matter and re read some of the internet stuff. I've found quite a bit about it, but I keep coming back to the official inquiry. Now, along with most historical air accidents, it seems that these are not available, or if they are, I can't find them. Does anyone know where full verbatim reports can be found?

The National Archives are an obvious place to start:

Accident to Netherlands Constellation aircraft PH-TEN; near Tarbolton, Ayrshire, 20 Oct 1948: investigation and report by Chief Inspector of Accidents (https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C576475)

Given your location, it might also be worth trying the CAA Library at Gatwick. They have (or at least, had) lots of historical accident reports and in the past I have found them very helpful.

[bobdh478]

Thank you gents, I was trying the Nationl archive today, but my e mail addresses repeatedly come back as invalid, so I've not able to register yet. It's rather odd that other than one book, nothing appears to have been written.

[Herod]

I presume you've been here? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_KLM_Constellation_air_disaster

Thinking about this, there is a book somewhere, but it must e at least thirty years since I read it, so sorry, can't help on that score

[Herod]

I think you might be right about the title of a book or pamphlet. You presumably have seen this https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12255325.night-of-the-falling-star/
I can't find any book with the title "Night of the Falling Star", but it might exist. I presume the "star" bit refers to Capt Parmentier being one of the crew that won the MacRobertson-Miller air race in a KLM DC2

[DaveReidUK]

I presume the "star" bit refers to Capt Parmentier being one of the crew that won the MacRobertson-Miller air race in a KLM DC2

You don't think it's just a reference to the fact that the aircraft that went down was a Constellation, then ?

[akerosid]

Could be, but Parmentier was one of the most famous pilots in civil aviation at the time, so he would - in a way - have been a falling star.

[bobdh478]

I was fairly sure there was a small book or pamphlet that was published locally. I thought the reference was to the burning a/c, but I might be wrong. I know there was a small pamphlet published by a local resident about the G-ALSA crash, might be the same person.

[megan]

KLM Constellation PH-TEN

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_KLM_Constellation_air_disaster

https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1949/1949%20-%201938.html?search=ph-ten

[bobdh478]

Many thanks for that. Whilst I hadn't seen that particular piece, I had studied the quite lengthy Hansard House of Lords verbatim record as well as the somewhat less detailed House of Commons account. For me, what comes out is the sense of surprise that so much information is spread out in so many 'bits' of information, and no single definitive account appears to exist.

[DH106]

There's a chapter on this crash in "Disaster in the Air" by Andrew Brookes, ISBN 0-7110-2037-X

[bobdh478]

Funnily enough I was sure I knew a fair bit about this accident from somewhere. I'm sure I had the "Disaster I the air" book, but can only find his "Flights to disaster". However, I have moved twice and there are lots of books in boxes. Thanks for that, how detailed is it?

[DH106]

The chapter is 11 pages, with diagrams from above and in front of how the Constellation hit the power lines before crashing. Photos of Capt. Parmentier at the controls of an aircraft (not a Connie though by the look of it), and of the wreckage in the field.
You can buy the 2nd hand book for a couple of quid here:-
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&cm_sp=SearchF-_-home-_-Results&an=&tn=&kn=&isbn=0-7110-2037-X

[bobdh478]

Many thanks for all the input. I haven't been able to obtain a casualty list. I wondered how many air crew Nijmegan was carrying? If it's like the Shannon Connie I suppose it would be Captain, 1/O, 2 x 2nd pilots, 2 F/Es..... maybe a W/O?
I've seen mention that the 1/O Kevin Joseph O'Brien was ex RAF, but more than that I can't find.

[DaveReidUK]

10 crew, 30 passengers. See link in post #5.

[bobdh478]

I meant aircrew as distinct from cabin crew. I knew it was 10, it's on every piece of info on the crash.

[DaveReidUK]

I meant aircrew as distinct from cabin crew. I knew it was 10, it's on every piece of info on the crash.

Three pilots, two F/Es, two radio operators, two stewards and one stewardess.

[DH106]

According to the book, the crew of 10 consisted of 3 pilots, 2 flight engineers, 2 wireless operators and 3 flight attendants.
The 3 pilots were:- Capt. Parmentier, 1st Officer O'Brien and 2nd Officer Parks - the latter two being ex. RAF.
Apparently 6 people survived the initial crash, but were all too badly burnt to survive and later died.

The Nijmegen was apparently carrying an under slung 'Speedpak' cargo pod at the time of her crash.

[bobdh478]

Thanks for that chaps. I saw the Pathe news clip that said 39, which was obviously made on the morning after the crash.
Even with extra manning it would've been a very tired crew by the time they got to journeys end. What would today's working time directive made of it. Little wonder there were so many accidents.
Just a thought, why with 2 W/Os would one of the pilots be doing the R/T comms?

[DaveReidUK]

Map showing the crash site at Auchinweet Farm, Tarbolton in relation to Runway 26 (long since closed) at Prestwick:

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/913x291/auchinweet_farm_a2e27ef16202ca4d17258c2edcba1f49fade7358.jpg

Note the HT lines running N-S across the farmland at Langlands, which were the ones that the aircraft hit.

[bobdh478]

Thanks Dave, apparently he was heading N40E and more or less completed a circle over Tarbolton. Oddly, if he hadn't have kept going in the port turn he would've been not too badly lined up for 26.

[DaveReidUK]

Thanks for that chaps. I saw the Pathe news clip that said 39, which was obviously made on the morning after the crash.

One person survived for several days before succumbing to their injuries.

[bobdh478]

It seems the emergency services were very slow getting there. Seems very odd as at least one policeman saw it over Tarbolton. You'd think that a burning airliner barely above rooftop height would attract some attention as well as a little curiosity at prestwick airport.

[pax britanica]

Says a lot about the world that the flight deck drew outnumbered the cabin-talk about productivity.

As to the two radio ops aside from the fact that away from land it was all HF radio much of it was W/T wireless telegraphy. And back then while pilots could understand Morse code I am not sure they could send it . Also the Radio Ops would be required to keep a listening watch so having a pilot spell on operator means he isnt getting his rest as apilot . The radio sets were nothing like today's digital frequency selection , they required a lot of experienced and deft fingers to tune the frequency precisely and know when certain frequencies work and when they dont. HF is a very funny medium in terms of propagation you could often hear a station thousands of miles away and not hear one 200 miles away . Keeping a listening watch with all the background noise on HF is mentally very tiring as well and I am sure the whole flight crew were pretty darnn tired at the end of a transatlantic trip at 300 odd knots on a very small flight deck with four great piston props rumbling and vibrating away

[bobdh478]

Yes, couldn't have been much fun. It also says a lot about how things were when events like this, and for that matter the Shannon KLM caused no one to really be curious about anything that would elicit huge responses in more recent years.

[megan]

And back then while pilots could understand Morse code I am not sure they could send itAs a young lad used to fly as a pax in a corporate Lockheed 12, it had a morse key mounted on the co-pilots right. Up until a few years ago in Oz for an instrument rating you had to be able to read morse at 10wpm to pass.

[WHBM]

Even with extra manning it would've been a very tired crew by the time they got to journeys end. What would today's working time directive made of it. Little wonder there were so many accidents.Don't forget the accident flight was westbound, the accident happening just at the end of the first short leg from Amsterdam. Heavy crews going all the way was the norm then, like on a ship, they did not slip until they got to New York, in part because the intermediate points were so unreliable and weather-dependent that you couldn't be sure which ones might get used. Sometimes they didn't even slip at the destination, aircraft layovers of a couple of days before returning can be seen in timetables of the era.

W/O crew were different to radio operators as their principal Wireless role was sending and receiving Morse, communicated by notes with the flying crew. Again, practice just like a ship.

The legends did seem to come to unfortunate ends. BOAC's O P Jones landed a Strat short at Goose Bay in the 1950s (no injuries) and said, actually quite commendably, "that's it for me".

[Spooky 2]

It would appear that KLM used the radio operators up through the 1957 time period. I use to fly a former KLM L1049H that had the aft facing RO station right behind the Capt. seat. As I recall these aircraft were built in the 1956/57 time period. I suppose they would have seen service down in Africa as well as Indonesia. Also, these were the first aircraft I recall seeing with SELCAL installed although I do not recall whether it was HF or VHF only.

[bobdh478]

I've been reading through the accident report and it certainly becomes apparent that the organisation at Prestwick, and I suspect further up the chain was a bit of a mess. I think the key question that may well have answered the mystery as to why Parmentier was still even in that area was impossible to answer because of so many errors in the log of R/T messages. These were supposed to be recorded on a minute by minute basis and they were not. There was a separate room in the tower at Prestwick as well as staff who's sole job was to write up the R/T exchanges. The person recording these seems to have been so confused that we are unable to really know if the crew thought the ceiling was 7,000 feet, as recorded.... not the 700 feet it was. At 2308 she recorded the vis at 300 yds instead of 3900 yds that it was. When questioned she said she thought it was 3,000 yds. The point is.... if it could be established that the pilot was informed at 2316 that vis was 2,000 yds (which it was by that time, but no one informed the a/c, despite a message being passed to PH-TEN at that time) that would have been a material fact in determining the cause. That was quite clearly below the KLM minima for runway 26.

[suninmyeyes]

I first read about this accident in the 1960’s in Ralph Barker’s great book “Great Mysteries Of The Air.”

It it is a very worthwhile read for any aviation enthusiast.

[bobdh478]

I've gone through this quite carefully and it is a very odd accident indeed. One comes away with the distinct impression that something out of the ordinary must have occurred on the downwind leg to distract the pilots from the altimeter.
On a slightly different tangent, the Wikpedia entry has quite a few errors and I wonder if it's worth the trouble correcting. The references are to a book, Barker 1988, whereas I would use the Official Enquiry Report.

[DaveReidUK]

On a slightly different tangent, the Wikpedia entry has quite a few errors and I wonder if it's worth the trouble correcting.

If you're interested in historical accuracy then, yes, you should do.

Bear in mind that factual edits to Wikipedia articles tend to get reverted unless accompanied by an authoritative citation (obviously the official report would qualify as one).

[bobdh478]

Yes Dave,
I did cite the Official Report in the couple of things I've altered so far. But some bits need more extensive work I think.