122 replies to this topic

[Ray Bell]

A thread in the RC forum mentions a NASCAR family lost in a crash at the weekend... ten died in the crash, apparently.

There is also mention in the thread about an undue number of NASCAR teams that have been hit by air crash disasters. Buford mentions one crash that took out a bunch of officials all in one go.

So let's, perhaps, raise the issue here.

Graham Hill, Tony Brise and Tony Alcock are the outstanding ones, November 1975, but also there was Ron Flockhart in 1962... who else?

I mention also Gary Campbell, F5000, ANF2 and FVee driver, died in 1989 while chasing newsmen trying to round up a scoundrel who got away with $2m, they having hired him to take them from Canberra to Melbourne... he was on his way from Sydney to Canberra in heavy cloud...

[longford68]

Tony Benthausen CART , Alan Kulwicki Nascar, Carlos Pace F1. They were the first to come to mind.

[Updraught]

Al Holbert, IMSA

[Jim Thurman]

There have been many. When one considers the amount of air travel involved, it's not surprising. Many have come post-racing career as well.

Mack Hellings (Indy driver)
John Cannon
Al Holbert
Rick Newsome (NASCAR driver)
Richie Panch (retired NASCAR driver)
Chip Mead
the USAC officials in 1978
Deake Lyndall Jr. and his father, retired driver Deake Lyndall Sr. (NASCAR West)
Gary Weir and the Pacemaker Sprint Car team
Lance Reventlow
Davey Allison
Ron Flockhart

Far from complete...

[Muzza]

The aircraft accident that took the life of José Carlos Pace also killed (then retired) touring car driver Marivaldo Fernandes - a close friend to Pace's and a very successful driver on his own right. And, by all accounts, Fernandes was an extremely nice fellow as well, and he was the one flying the plane when it came down.

Carlos "Carlito" Menen, rally driver and son of the Argentinean President of same name, was killed when the helicopter in which he was travelling hit power lines and came aground. At the time there were rumours that the helicopter had been "brought down by a rifle or another large-caliber handgun", but I believe the subsequent accident investigation confirmed that it was a case of a miscalculated flight pattern.

And, of course, let's not forget the sad end of Thierry Sabine - the father of the Paris-Dakar - and his flight companions Daniel Balavoine (a French singer), journalist Nathaly Odent, communications technician Jean-Paul Le Fur and pilot François Xavier-Bagnoudare, all killed when their helicopter crashed into a dune in the Sahara desert during the 1986 event.

And there are, sadly, so many others...


Muzza

[Ralliart]

Henry Liddon and Nigel Harris - light plane - '87 Ivory Coast Rally
David Prophet - helicopter - '81 Silverstone
Jon Woodner - plane - '88 Wash. D.C.
Jose Dolhem - plane - '88 - St. Etienne
Bertie and Mark Fisher - helicopter - '81
Harald Ertl - plane - '82 Germany

[Todd]

Curtis Turner, October 4, 1970.

[rdrcr]

Originally posted by Jim Thurman
"There have been many. When one considers the amount of air travel involved, it's not surprising. Many have come post-racing career as well...."

A truly tragic occurrence. This was a Beech King Air 200, a turbo-prop. I don't know if it was equipped with the latest avionics or not. Still, both pilots were no doubt fully rated and most likely very familiar with the aircraft as they were in the employment of Hendrick Motorsport.

I haven't read any in-depth reports of the latest news surrounding this terrible crash. I can only surmise if it wasn't pilot error, that leaves catastrophic mechanical failure of some sort, unrecoverable wind-shear or other unusual weather phenomena.

Having flown 172's and right-seat in everything from 152's to currently FMS (Flight Management System) equipped twin jet-props (with over 1,500 total hours), I think it would take an unusual set of circumstances to disrupt such an aircraft as the 200 to cause it to fall from the sky.

All sorts of factors could enter into the equation - from something as simple as weight and balance errors, to the aforementioned catastrophic mechanical failure(s) to pilot error.

In any event, many problems arise when scheduling overrides the importance of safety - be it weather, equipment or whatever.

Within every crash, is a set of circumstances that are allowed to happen and given the strict confines of aircraft maintenance and pilot protocols, the vast majority could have been prevented.

No matter here... it happened and the Hendrick family has suffered a horrible, almost unspeakable loss.

My sincere condolences.

[theunions]

From the Indy side, Al Loquasto, Eddie Johnson and Jim Robbins immediately come to mind.

[Barry Boor]

A gentleman who was instrumental in bringing together Peter Connew and Francois Migault in 1972 through his PROMOTO organisation was Brian Kreisky.

Brian was killed in a light aircraft accident in southern England a few years ago.

I believe that many young drivers during the 1970s benefitted from being connected to Brian's outfit.

[Eric McLoughlin]

I think the Fisher crash was a lot more recent than 1981 - 2001?

Kreisky and his son and daughter were killed when their Beech 200 Super King Air swung off the runway during a takeoff at Blackbushe Airport in Hamphire. Visibility was very bad (read pretty foggy) and the plane veered off the runway, crashed into an industrial unit and exploded. Although not an airliner, the Beech 200 is a pretty large twin turboprop executive aircraft and I would not normally class it as a "light" aircraft.

[rdrcr]

NASCAR defending series champion Alan Kulwicki was killed when the plane in which he was a passenger crashed while he was on his way to a race.

IIRC, Later that year, Davey Allison also died from injuries suffered in a helicopter crash during a race weekend.

I suppose Derek Bennett's hanglider crash would qualify too.

Current F1 star David Coulthard was lucky to escape death when his plane crashed, killing the two pilots. Same luck could be said for Alessandro Nannini and his close brush with a helicopter crash.

[fvebr]

David PURLEY 1985 with a Pitts

[Doug Nye]

Glen Kidston - Bentley Boy and Le Mans winner... Drakensberg, South Africa

John Hindmarsh - Lagonda boy and Le Mans winner, test pilot... Hawker Hurricane on test, St george's Hill, Weybridge, Surrey, England

Chris Staniland - Brooklands boy, motorcycle racer, racing driver, test pilot - Fairey Battle...

Luis Fontes - Lagonda boy and Le Mans winner, Air Transport Auxiliary pilot in wartime... Wellington on delivery, Pembrey, Wales

Johnny Wakefield - Maserati boy, FAA or RAF pilot in wartime (can't remember)...
...and so many more.

Holly Birkett and his wife - co-founders of the 750 Motor Club, luminaries of the VSCC etc - Auster, at Deauville I think, maybe Le Touquet...

DCN

[Twin Window]

Wasn't there a crash at Donington (or Birmingham Int) involving a large passenger aircraft which, IIRC, failed to take off? The plane cleared the motorway and broke up the other side, killing many. The flight was bound for Ireland, with many racing folk on board returning from Autosport show at the NEC. Sorry for being vague on this...

[MCS]

Originally posted by Twin Window
Wasn't there a crash at Donington (or Birmingham Int) involving a large passenger aircraft which, IIRC, failed to take off? The plane cleared the motorway and broke up the other side, killing many. The flight was bound for Ireland, with many racing folk on board returning from Autosport show at the NEC. Sorry for being vague on this...

Think it was a 737 - it crashed into the banking on the M1 at Kegworth and there were a number of people on board who had attended the meeting that weekend at Donington

Mark

[Doug Nye]

No - what the press called the Kegworth Air Disaster happened on January 8, 1989, involving a British Midland Boeing 737-400 (G-OBME) on a scheduled flight from London Heathrow to Belfast. After an engine failure the remaining (healthy) engine was shut down in error and the aircraft consequently lost height, undershot its emergency destination at Castle Donington and finally came to earth on the embankment of the M1 motorway, close to Kegworth village and agonisingly close to the airport threshold. 47 died, 79 survived. I don't think there was any particular motor sporting connection other than proximity to Donington Park.

Two other aircraft to my knowledge have impacted within the Donington Park site - one a Short commuter liner which crash landed on the sloping ground adjacent to the Melbourne Loop (no injuries), in other words massively under-shooting the East Midlands Airport runway at the opposite end from the Kegworth disaster - and the other a medium-sized airliner on a training flight which from memory of the accident report suffered seized elevators due to freak icing conditions, bellied into the ground just outside the circuit boundary and then slithered into the concrete circuit boundary wall. I think the captain and second officer survived but were severely injured, at least one by the nosewheel leg punching up through the flightdeck floor.

DCN

[Eric McLoughlin]

The Kegworth crash was a Bitish Midland Boeing 737 - 400 which crashed in 1989 whilst trying to make an emergency landing at East Midlands Airport (over the wall from Donnington Park). The plane was actually on a flight from London Heathrow to Belfast and had not planned to land at East Midlands. Shortly after reaching cruisng height, one of the engines showed sign of rough running. The pilots shut down what they thought was the offending engine and decided to land at East Midlands (which is British Midlands engineering base). However, they inadvertantly shut down the good engine.

Because they were in the descent, the bad engine was throttled back and seemed to be behaving normally. Consequently, the pilots had no indication that they had done anything wrong. Once they were on the final approach to the runway at East Midlands, they lowered the undercarriage and set the flaps for landing. This always creates drag so more power is needed. Once they spooled up the bad engine, it immediately began misbehaving again. As a result, the plane lost power, descended and landed astride the M1 motorway, impacting the motorway embankment on the side of the road.

I had not realised there were any motor racing connections with this particular crash. As the plane was flying from London to Belfast, I would not have thought that there was any direct link between a Donnington Park race meeting and the accident.

In the 1980s there were two other airliner accidents at East Midlands airport. An Aer Lingus twin turboprop Shorts 360 came down within the boundaries of the actual race track. There were no serious casualties in this accident although a fireman broke an ankle when the airport fire tender toppled over in its rush to the crash site.

A Fokker F27 also crashed on approach to East Midlends (sometime around 1987/88), again, with no injuries.

[bill moffat]

It was a British Midlands 737. It had suffered engine failure shortly after take off and was involved in the (reasonably) routine exercise of an emergency landing. The tragedy was that the pilot shut down what he perceived to be the failing engine, but got it dreadfully wrong. An entirely healthy engine was shut down in error, the hobbled engine could not keep it in the air. Unusually for an accident of this scale there was no fire so there were survivors.

A very similar accident involving a motor sport venue occurred at the ex-RAF base at Llandow in 1950. An Avro Tudor V was returning to South Wales from Dublin with 83 passengers and crew. Most of the passengers were Welsh rugby supporters celebrating their team's victory over Ireland and winning the Triple Crown. Once again the plane crash landed short of the runway but, as with the 737, there was no fire. All but 3 of the passengers died, I believe that it was the worst commercial aircraft disaster at the time.

[Macca]

WW2 - A. F. P. Fane?


From bike racing - twice Daytona 200 winner Dale Singleton, known as the 'Georgia Pig Farmer'.





Paul M

[Eric McLoughlin]

I had not realised that the Tudor crashed at Llandow. I had heard of the accident and in recent years I've taken part in a few sprints and track days there. I had not made the connection.

If we include motor cycle racers you would have to mention Steve Hislop as well.

BBC TV presenter and one time touring car racer, Mike Smith had a lucky escape in a helicopter accident a few years ago too.

[Hugo Boecker]

Wilbur Shaw October 30th 1954

[Vitesse2]

Ernst Burggaller. On balance, it appears he died on a non-combat flight, probably in a Messerschmitt Bf109 - I can't find any evidence of air activity over the relevant section of the Maginot Line in the relevant time period: Allied units seem to have been grounded by the weather in late January 1940.

[Ray Bell]

And, of course, engineer and engine designer/builder Merv Waggott... in his self-built plane somewhere over Luddenham, west of Sydney, hit a pelican.

This took off the canopy bubble, which accounted for a significant amount of the lift of the aircraft... apparently.

But Merv was on top of it right to the end, steering it out of most of harm's way... went into a house or bounced off a house and he and his passenger died. Circa 1980.

[Jim Thurman]

Originally posted by Macca
WW2 - A. F. P. Fane?


From bike racing - twice Daytona 200 winner Dale Singleton, known as the 'Georgia Pig Farmer'.

Yes, tragically in the same crash alongside Richie Panch. I also neglected to mention Midget racer Bob Barker who died in the same crash alongside Hellings.

Sorry I neglected to mention them, or for that matter anyone else I overlooked. I thought of David Purley a few hours after my original post.

John Rostek, NASCAR and USAC Stock Car driver of the late 50's/early 60's. Post retirement. Crashed near Vermillion, South Dakota - Christmas 1969.

[Adam F]

Michael Chorlton, post-war Bugatti, driver died when his light aircraft crashed at Shottesbrooke, near Maidenhead in October 1951.

Peter Whitehead was injured in a plane crash (at Croydon?) in late 1947/early 1948, which put him out of racing for 1948. Any more details on this would be appreciated.

Other "air deaths" include :-

Clifton Penn-Hughes, July 1939, ? near Folkestone
Teddy Rayson, November 1939, Beechingstoke, Wilts
Dick Shuttleworth, August 1940, Benson, Oxon
Richard Bolster (John's brother), June 1941, Germany
Norman Wilson, April 1942, near Malmesbury, Wilts

[David McKinney]

Hon C S Rolls, Bournemouth, 1910-ish

[bill moffat]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
A thread in the RC forum mentions a NASCAR family lost in a crash at the weekend... ten died in the crash, apparently.


Graham Hill, Tony Brise and Tony Alcock are the outstanding ones, November 1975, but also there was Ron Flockhart in 1962... who else?

Ron Flockhart died whilst practising for a solo London-Australia flight, is that right ?? Any details ?

[Tim Murray]

Try this Flockhart thread, which contains links to other Flockhart threads:

http://forums.atlasf...t=Flockhart air

[Vitesse2]

Originally posted by Adam F
Peter Whitehead was injured in a plane crash (at Croydon?) in late 1947/early 1948, which put him out of racing for 1948. Any more details on this would be appreciated.

On take-off on a flight to Italy, where he was intending to purchase a new Maserati. For details you could try the Croydon Airport Society

[MCS]

Originally posted by Doug Nye
No - what the press called the Kegworth Air Disaster happened on January 8, 1989, involving a British Midland Boeing 737-400 (G-OBME) on a scheduled flight from London Heathrow to Belfast. After an engine failure the remaining (healthy) engine was shut down in error and the aircraft consequently lost height, undershot its emergency destination at Castle Donington and finally came to earth on the embankment of the M1 motorway, close to Kegworth village and agonisingly close to the airport threshold. 47 died, 79 survived. I don't think there was any particular motor sporting connection other than proximity to Donington Park.

DCN

I'm curious now. I'm certain I read something in the following week's Autosport that referenced the accident because there were a number of racing people on board.

I thought the accident happened October, November time though...

Mark

[Pat Clarke]

Quote Twin Window......"Wasn't there a crash at Donington (or Birmingham Int) involving a large passenger aircraft which, IIRC, failed to take off? The plane cleared the motorway and broke up the other side, killing many. The flight was bound for Ireland, with many racing folk on board returning from Autosport show at the NEC. Sorry for being vague on this..."

Twinny, I think you have mistaken this crash for the 1972 Staines crash when a BEA Trident crashed after takeoff from Heathrow following the captain being incapacitated by a coronary. (A whole other story)
The aircraft was enroute to Brussells and among the passengers (120?? or so?? Lots !!) were members of the Irish delegation to Irelands impending entry to the European Union. Several movers and shakers from the Irish Motoring Industry were aboard and perished. I know at least one prominent ex racer was aboard, but for the life of me I cant remember who.
Regards to all
Pat

[Pat Clarke]

And of course Paul Morgan (the 'Mor' in Ilmor) perished when his Sea Fury inverted on landing a couple of years ago. I wonder if there was any connection with the lack of success in recent years of "Ilmor" sourced engines?
Pat

[Eric McLoughlin]

The Staines accident involved Hawker Siddeley Trident 1c G-ARPI. The immediate cause of the accident was the retraction of the flaps and leading edge droops when the plane was flying too slowly to permit it to fly in that configuration. It was always only ever a theory that Captian Keys suffered a coronary. During the autopsy it was discovered that his arteries were badly blocked. Unfortunately, Papa India did not have a cockpit voice recorder so what happened on the flight deck that day could never be discovered. CVRs became compulsory on British airliners as a result of that accident.

It still is the worst air accident on British soil (118 died) - on the basis that Lockerbie was not an accident.

[Keir]

From what I got from the post race interview, this was an accident waiting to happen.

The airport that services the track was not equipped to handle "instrument only" landings, I believe Talladega is also not equipped.

The drivers, who do a great deal of the flying themselves, have complained but nothing was done.

Now, it seems, it takes a tragedy to bring this sort of shortsightedness to the forefront.

[Richard Jenkins]

Joel Thorne, back in 1955 - 3 others were killed as well.

No-one seems to have mentioned Nannini's serious accident either.

Eddie Johnson died in a plane crash in 1974 as well.

[FLB]

Lance Reventlow, 1972.

[Buford]

Wow - there are a few people on these lists I did not even know were killed in air crashes. RIP.

[LB]

Nothing to do with racing but an interesting side note to the Kegworth air disaster is that one of the first vehicles that arrived on the scene was a troop carrier full of SAS men, they entered the burning craft and saved many lives. Of course nothing was said about it in order to preserve their identity, the full story only coming out much later in Chris Ryan's (I think. Could have been Andy McNab's) book on Bravo 2 Zero. Considering that Kegworth and the Gibraltar killings were very close together it would have been some very good publicity for the SAS.

[bill moffat]

Just a mention of a trio of sad accidents that lie at the periphery of our sport...

Mark Hanna was known to all of us and who would forget his Goodwood displays. He died in September '99 when he crash-landed in Spain.

In April '00 a 2 seater Spitfire came down at Goodwood Circuit/Airfield killing both crew.

Martin Sargeant died at Rouen airfield in June '01 when his Spitfire Mk XI crashed as it attempted an emergency landing. His death was all the more bitter for the fact that the emergency landing strip that he could have used was rendered unuseable by spectators who had entered this resticted area...to my shame I can't recall his connection to motor sport but I remember a C-type (?) with a dedication to his memory on the tail.

The same weekend that Sargeant died I was at a dismal Biggin Hill and witnessed 3 pilots die in fatal crashes. That all-too-familiar motor sport feeling of "is this really worth the cost" was with me on the way home, but then passion takes over...

[Paul Parker]

And they say motor racing is dangerous! Much the same sort of roll call could be produced out of rock musicians and pop stars.

[Eric McLoughlin]

I was planning a trip down to Goodwood on the day the two seat Spitfire crashed (PV202). It was a beautiful crystal clear Spring morning. When I got there, the Spitfire was lying inverted on the inside edge of Madgwick corner. It clipped a tree on final approach, came down on the spectator's banking and came to rest, upside down at Madgwick.

This Spitfire has been almost completely restored and is nearing its first flight since the accident. This time, it has been restored to the proper two seat Spitfire configuration (i.e blown canopy over the rear cockpit) and is carrying its last true military colours, No.162 of the Irish Army Air Corps.

[Rob29]

One not mentioned so far,not a driver AFAIK,but race promoter,Brazilian Scavalone(sp?) who organized the Torneio series in the 70s,was killed in the crash of a Varig DC10 outside Paris.

[Eric McLoughlin]

That wasn't the Varig Boeing 707 outside Paris around 1973 by any chance? The DC10 accident was the infamous THY - Turkish Airlines accident in March 1974.

[FrankB]

Originally posted by Doug Nye
No - what the press called the Kegworth Air Disaster happened on January 8, 1989, ...finally came to earth on the embankment of the M1 motorway, ...

OT - but what always amazes me about this incident is that no vehicles on the M1 were involved. I have driven on the M1 at all hours of the day and night, and it is very rare to see a gap on all three lanes of one carriageway (let alone both at the same time) that would be large enough for an aircraft to pass through. And yet the 737 had crossed the entire width of the motorway low enough (or so I am told) to damage the central reserve crash barrier and the surface of the northbound carriageway.

[Mallory Dan]

The BM 737 tragedy I remember well, as my wife worked for BM at the time. It was definitely a Sunday, as it was her birthday, which I should remember.

We'd been to Port Vale that day to see the Canaries beat them in FA Cup 3rd Round, it came on the news later that night, and she was pretty upset. If the A50 had been open then, I guess we may have been on the M1 at the time...

As an aside, again very poignant, I've read a book about the 1967 Stockport disaster. This also involved BM, this time an Argonaut. It was flying into Manchester, and again had engine problems. Incredibly, though 20 odd years before Kegworth, the Pilot shut down the wrong one, and as a result it crashed in Stockport town centre, about 5 miles short of the runway.

I reckon the bulk of plane crashes, like most crashes generally, are human errors I'm afraid.

[Eric McLoughlin]

I didn't think that the BM Argonaut crash actually involved the pilots shutting the wrong engines down.
What actually happened was that there was a problem with the levers which activated the cross feed fuel tank valves. As a result, the two Merlins on the starboard side ran out of fuel even though there was plenty of fuel in the tanks. Both Merlins shut down when the plane was on final approach to Manchester Airport (then called Ringway) and they just couldn't maintain height on the power of the two port Merlins alone. They also had to contend with a significant yaw caused by the extremely asymetric thrust of the two engines which were at maximum power setting. The additional drag caused by the full application of rudder to keep the [plane straight compounded the plane's inability to make the runway.

The pilots literally ran out of time to be able to correctly diagnose what was going on.

What was really sad about this accident is that the problem with the fuel cock levers was a well known issue with the Douglas DC-4/C-54 and the Canadair C-4 North Star/Argonaut aircraft. It was just that BM, having acquired the aircraft second hand from BOAC had not been one of the original recipients of the Douglas Company's warnings of this potential hazard - and BOAC had never thought to pass the information onwards to British Midland Airways.

[Rob29]

Originally posted by Eric McLoughlin
That wasn't the Varig Boeing 707 outside Paris around 1973 by any chance? The DC10 accident was the infamous THY - Turkish Airlines accident in March 1974.

Guess you are right Eric,I may have mixed those 2 up. There certainly seems to have been a lot of air crashes in the Paris area,what with the Concorde one and the Russian TU144.

[Mallory Dan]

Eric, you're spot on (as ever with Aircraft stuff) re Stockport. Have you seen/read that book, a very good read if you've not.

[Eric McLoughlin]

I hadn't realised that there was a book on the Stockport accident. Most of my knowledge of it comes from a BBC documentary which I saw about 20 years ago as part of an Open University programme. I expect the footage from 1967 was originally shot for a contemporary documentary (Horizon?) but by 1981/82 it was being shown as part of an OU programme on the human element of aircraft accidents.

In 1967, the CAA (or its equivalent) actually flew a sister Argonaut in an attempt to replicate the circumstances of the accident. They made the same mistakes with the fuel cock levers and ran out of fuel on queue. The captain had real problems just keeping the aircraft straight (his left leg went into spasm with the effort required on the left rudder pedal). Maintaining height was impossible. The really interesting thing was that all this was recorded by a film crew and used in the documentary.