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Imagine being on a plane that is crashing and having to come to terms with the fact that your last few hours on earth were spent in Heathrow

Back in the day, I flew on that first flight, a Trident, to use Autoland. The Captain, calmly, and in an understated British way, said, welcome to London Heathrow Airport. I am pleased to announce that this beautiful aircraft just landed itself...

Depending on just how worked up the captain got it's quite possible that he was still caught up in the argument which distracted him. I remember in an old job, a manager who had it in for me called me into the building as I was leaving to attend a meeting, just to chew me out over a non-issue. I was furious replaying the incident over and over in my head, so much so that I didn't notice a stop sign and almost crashed.

I remember that in 1980 I was a senior manager with a major American company when we had a presentation on this accident. There are a couple of points that I remember being mentioned. The first one was that there was a relief pilot sitting towards the rear of the passenger cabin, who upon realising what was happening as regards the stall he apparently ran the whole length of the aircraft in an attempt to assist. His body was found near or in the cockpit. On a more personal level, there was a party of very senior surgeons from Scotland who were on the flight attending a conference in Brussels. The cream of Scottish surgeons was wiped out that afternoon.

Here I am as a retired airline Captain and I’m still learning something new. I was not familiar with the Trident. I was impressed by the fact that it was the first auto land certified airliner and it had that style yoke which I first encountered in the Embraer Brasilia. The moving map display was also a surprise.

I lived near Staines as a child when this happened. It caused traffic chaos for days. The wreckage seemed to be there for ages, and long afterwards it was a horrible reminder each time we drove past. Thanks for covering this one.

British planes of the 50s and 60s may not be best sellers, but they pioneered some tech we know today

I'm from Staines (for my sins), and my parents saw that crash happen. They were coming back from visiting local family, driving along exactly that section of Staines Bypass (the major road next to the crash site). They didn't see the plane in the air, but were rocked by what seemed like a huge bomb going off, and saw a massive fireball. It was only later that they realised the full extent of what had happened. They've never talked about it much. Thanks for covering it so comprehensively.

I grew up just a couple of miles from the crash site. I was 18 at the time. It was horrific. One of the first responder medics later became a good friend. He was so traumatised that he could not work again. But later, I really grew to love flying on the Trident. A beautiful aircraft, but prone to heavy landings. I also flew Trident on an early autoland flight into Heathrow. So smooth you could barely feel touchdown.

Years ago we did a fire course, the fireman doing the course attended this accident. He said he saw passengers strapped in dead, as though asleep. All suffered basically broken necks or internals.

This is an excellent reconstruction. I also reviewed the summary on Wikipedia, with a special interest as to the patient's coronary disease, or what I suppose they were referring to as coronary disease. Speaking as a cardiologist, there was no way anyone could tell whether the captain was having any chest pain or any other effects from this coronary disease at the time of the accident unless there was clear evidence on the autopsy that he had suffered an actual acute heart attack, which I did not see any report of. Apparently he had not complained of any symptoms to anyone previously. Just because he had an altercation prior to the flight and he also had atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries does not allow one to conclude that a cardiac event was responsible for his poor performance. This appeared to be just speculation. It seems far more likely that he allowed his judgment to be clouded by the blowup with the flight officer and the toxic relationship with younger crew members.

There were survivors from the crash but sadly due to sightseers blocking the roads in Staines the ambulances struggled to get through.

You covered a complex accident extremely well with this one.

I was in hospital in 2019 when another patient in the same ward told me about this accident his best man at his wedding was cabin crew on this flight he said he never got over losing such a close friend

A great video as always. I think it was really a mix of everything: tensions in the cockpit, the captain suffering a heart failure etc. Of course, we're all humans with our biases, grudges and emotions, but in the ideal world those should stay outside of the cockpit.

One thing not mentioned in the video was that the stick pusher had shown a large number of false activation over many months prior to this accident. My father was also a Captain on Trident at that time. When I asked him why he thought the stick pusher had been turned off he pulled out his log book and was able to find 5 or more incidents where he had experienced a false activation. In the first of those he explained that there was no way to disable it and that he and the co-pilot, between them, were only just strong enough to hold the controls back during their emergency return and landing. They each had one foot braced against the dash leaving one foot each to activate the brakes. After this (i believe) a valve was fitted such that the hydraulic pressure could be released. My father believed that during this flight the Captain assumed the stall warning to be false whilst being unaware of the slats being withdrawn. It does not however answer why he did not hit the throttles (to hell with noise abatement) in response to the low airspeed. In later years BA introduced 'failure to respond' scenarios into simulator sessions where a member of the crew were taken aside before the simulator 'flight' and asked to behave unnaturally at a certain point to see how the rest of the crew dealt with it.

Also, something that needs to be talked about more these days, is age-related vascular dementia. Two of my family members had it. It's a slow clogging of the arteries to the brain, thus gradual oxygen deprivation in the brain. It's insideous, and people adjust to it somewhat and thus minimize the effects, and it's much less striking than other dementias. Personality changes are a hallmark of the start. People often become more extreme in their political and religious beliefs or change them altogether, or just more of what's already there, like anger, perhaps violence, depression, paranoia, and denial. And forgetfulness, of course, but not too noticeable at first. Also inflexiblility, unable to adjust to a changing world. High cholesterol, smoking, and heart disease are risks, as along with heart issues, other blood vessels are affected/clogged similarly. These days, they can easily clean out the build-up in the neck arteries. It can be detected by ultrasound, I believe. Getting the senior to have these simple procedures is often difficult, though.

I remember this accident vividly. I had just applied to British Airways as a trainee pilot and may have gone on to fly Tridents.

I remember the Trident and even flew aboard several to and from Yugoslavia during my family trips to Yugoslavia in the 70s. My last flight on a Trident was in August 1981 from Zagreb to LHR. I sat on one of the rear-facing rows just ahead of the wing on the right-hand side. She was an excellent plane and a loud one at that.

I vividly remember when this happened, even though I was only a child at the time. It was such a needless accident, so easy to avoid. CRM has come a long way since then.

At certain points in my career as an airline pilot, I was a witness to tension between picket line crossers and strikers. I can tell you that it made for tension on the flight deck between them and made for an unpleasant work environment.

Accidentally changing the aircraft’s configuration by grabbing the wrong handle and not being aware of it because everyone’s eyes were out of the cockpit, reminds me of the recent ATR crash in Nepal.

The irony of Key seeing strike action as unprofessional, only for him to very unprofessionally blow up at his colleague about the subject of strike action.

I was 14yrs old and obsessed with aviation, living at the time in Pooley Green not far from Staines. Much of my time was spent in the garden with my fathers binoculars watching the planes coming over our house. I was doing this when I heard the impact and saw the smoke rise to the North of us.

there's a lot going on here, but you explained and kept it all in check perfectly! great video, as always :)

To correct the record, the worst aircrash on UK soil was the Lockerbie incident on 21/12/88 killing all 269 onboard plus 11 on the ground.

That was an outstanding video! I’ve been an air traffic controller since 2001 and really look forward to you new videos. Thank you for the time and effort that you put into this and every other video!!!

I once worked with a lady in Human Resources who had posted for the job that I got. I was new to the company. She had been there for 2 years. At first she was very helpful. But then she asked my boss to fire me and place her in my role. He refused (yep, this is what he told me). That is when she stopped talking to or even answering me when I said "good morning." No eye contact from her either. This was her problem, not mine. One year later Covid-19 craziness happened, she saw that I was fully engaged in the role and doing well when it came to following sanitary protocols. Then one day, she began talking to me like nothing had ever happened. I followed suit. Again, this was not MY PROBLEM. She is a VERY intelligent person and performs very well. Has a great intuition too. Bad situation for a while. But, I think, mutual respect. That is what this flight crew was missing. Mutual respect.

It's pretty sad how such immature people can end up being responsible for other people's lives.

My wife's parents were killed on BEA 548. We went to the 45th anniversary in Staines , Met Mike Bannister, the BEA chief concord pilot, and his wife, along with Nurse Frances, who was the first to arrive on the scene. We also met 2 of the news reporters who arrived on the scene right after the crash. Met several relatives who's family members perished on the flight. I always believed that Captain Key was a victim of circumstance, that his unknown heart ailment may have contributed to the crash, but his younger, immature colleagues were too inexperienced to correct or overcome the unfortunate chaos that happened on the flight deck. I feel, Captain Key was a good guy and great pilot, although he was the butt of jokes from the younger and inexperienced pilots below him. The younger pilots wanted to strike, the older pilots were more mature and just wanted to do their jobs. Good documentary, thanks...

Fantastic video and informative. I have mentioned before that my mum was in a local hospital in Staines in 1972. I would have been six at the time. I went with my dad to visit my mum on that Sunday and I commented to my dad, why were there so many emergency vehicles around. When we got home it was on the news what had happened. I always think of this accident when I drive down the Staines by pass where it happened. Thanks once again for the work you put into these videos.

I have to wonder whether Key was actually having a full-on heart attack, and the rest of the crew were trying to deal with too many things at once.

Thank you for this video. I was a child in London at the time of this disaster and remember being shocked hearing the news on that Sunday. I was very keen on aviation and patriotically proud of England’s pioneering innovative aviation industry, frustrated that the government had cancelled the amazing TSR2 fighter bomber, and therefore the thought of a Trident crashing on a weather-wise perfect day, was unimaginable. Thank you for so sensitively and so accurately presenting the facts.

The animation of the jet plummeting towards earth sent a major chill down my spine. Also, my gosh, what a toxic cockpit indeed.

Ok. I'm a bit obsessed with your channel. Once again, a flawless telling of another plane disaster. I love the background and history you provide and how you make the technical stuff easy to understand

What an amazing vid! The information and quality of the content in it is just as detailed as a air crash investigation episode. Definetly I will be watching your videos more often. Continue like that! RIP to everybody aboard flight 548

I flew the Trident many times in the late 70's and early 80's. It is still the worlds second fastest commercial jet after Concorde. It was loud but always fun to fly in

Thanks for the video. I learnt some new things. I didn't know that the graffiti had probably been made 2 weeks prior. For some reason I thought it was scribbled just before the flight. I didn't know about the T-tail design having that stall quirk either. Yes, this accident is a perfect example of why a flight-deck voice recorder is needed.

"Staines-upon-Thames" sounds like a town with a severe self-confidence problem. Like, c'mon, you're a fine little town, I bet, there's no need to call yourself a stain.

"It was supposed to be a short flight." It was.

Fantastic video as always. I've seen several recaps of this accident and don't remember any others looking as closely at the pilot's potential health concerns, so I've learned something new!

I remember this 'story' breaking on the BBC 6 O'clock news the day it happened. I couldn't believe that a perfectly functional aircraft with three engines could stall and 'fall out of the sky' like that. I was only a child at the time. One of our neighbours happened to be a BOAC maintenance engineer. It seemed to be the only thing that he and my dad talked about for months afterwards.

My friends father was a fireman from nearby Slough that attended the crash site. He told us that it was an horrific scene. The aircraft had hit the ground hard on its belly. Most of the passengers that had been in the brace position were found in their seats with their spines sticking up behind their heads due to the massive impact.

Something I love about the trident is about the trident is that the nose gear is just off to the left and its entirely british. Its just the aircraft that will annoy anyone with ocd

A great disaster video, very well presented. There was no loud, intrusive music to distract from the narration. Another one please!

I remember this accident very well because a friend and I rode our bikes to the crash scene. We both lived in Staines of course and were in the town when the plane came down so rode as fast as we could to where it came down. We knew the quickest way there. The emergency services were on the scene when we got there so couldn’t get too close but l do remember that we could quite clearly see the plane. Well what was left of it. My father worked for BEA at the time and was, if I remember correctly, on duty that day and it effected him quite badly. It was an extremely upsetting time for all the people involved especially the emergency services, BEA, Heathrow Airport and the people of Staines.

An excellent video on this flight. This is one of my "favorite" accident but it is hardly covered by other informational websites, perhaps in my historical search there are only about 5 websites (including KZfaq Channels like yours) out of the hundreds that are out there that covers this accident. Excellent work! Kudos to you for making this video.

Damn, I was not expecting this and Aeromexico flight 498 to be the preceding episodes for the Zagreb mid-air collision, my guess back on the last week's comment section became a huge miss lol. This and last week's Disaster Breakdown are very well done. I'll be looking forward towards next week's episode of Disaster Breakdown about the Zagreb mid-air collision.

I remember this accident. Sight-seers went and stopped nearby on the M4 motorway afterwards, some allegedly even took picnics. A national newspaper the following day described this with the headline 'GHOULS'. Sickening behaviour.

Another example of how important it is to have respectful communication between colleagues. I've listened to a lot of these reports on air disasters and so many of them have this toxic background in the cockpit anger, resentment , tension, lack of knowledge which have all contributed to crashing they have to talk to each other so they can diagnose the problem and that's obviously the most major thing

Oh goodness, I looked up the event I THINK you’ll be covering next week (1976?), and there’s so many layers to it, but talk about a disaster happening in the blink of an eye. Definitely a worthwhile one to talk about, though, since I haven’t seen any other major airline channel discuss this one. I know you’ll do it justice, Chloe. :) Wonderful job

I remember this accident from the Mayday: Air Disasters show. I feel sorry for the old guy. RIP everyone who died in that crash.

Thanks for the high quality content once again! ❤️

I live in Staines. There is memorial window in the local church. At the time of the accident we were going home by train. We saw the jammed roads. The town has never forgotten the sccident

I remember this so well. I was a frequent 'spotter' with my air band radio at Heathrow. My uncle flew the Comet . Great video.

The Trident was nick-named "The Gripper" because of it's reluctance to take to the air. Longer versions of the Trident had a small fourth turbojet installed in the tail as can be seen in some of the great photos. An entire delegation of Irish industrial and exporting managers died in the accident.

My late Father was working at Heathrow when this happened installing radar in the new control tower. I remember him coming home that night so quiet - he was usually all laughter and funny all the time - not tonight. He had to drive past this crash scene to get home and told us what it looked like. He never forgot that day - many of us didnt, something changed that day. Not the Tridents fault but the toxic Captain!

This is the first time I have seen one of your videos. I'm so impressed with it, and of course I subscribed.

I lived close to Heathrow and remember that crash, not far from my late Uncles home. At the time capt Ticehurst got a lot of blame re the flaps, but the mix was a perfect storm. I also remember the disgusting public who were looting the contents from the wreckage, close to the reservoir…. 50 plus years ago like yesterday.

I researched this accident extensively about 10 years ago - it is fascinating. Due to the strike, the co-pilot (Keighley) was not trained to the highest standards and was being monitored by the third pilot/flight engineer (Ticehurst). Keighley was reported as being slow to respond to emergencies in training. It is a mystery as to why Ticehurst didn't notice the speed dropping and the droops retracted. The simplest explanation - and I have thought this through a LOT, almost daily - is that Captain Key's condition was so severe and distracting that the other three people on the flight deck were unable to prevent the plane entering a deep stall because they were trying to help him. Even though the medical evidence is thin, the idea that three other pilots (including Captain Collins in the jump seat - a trained Trident caption now flying Viscounts) were just sitting around in a panic or oblivious doesn't make any sense. The only person who may have been panicking a bit is Keighley due to his junior position. I believe Captain Key may have had a massive heart attack and fell unconscious. The others would have tried to either remove him from his seat (very difficult) or instruct Keighley to fly the plane. The idea that the crash happened almost subtly is, in my view, nonsense. Professionalism and lives depended on them getting it right - surely only a massive health incident could have distracted them that much? Footnote: I have seen at least one web article where the captain's daughter hotly disputes the heart attack theory!

I was a Trident 1E captain in Pakistan International Airlines in the late 1960s. It was a unique aircraft in many ways. We had normal control yokes, not the "motorcycle" type. It had a poor performance in ground summer temperatures (around 40C) and it could barely maintain Mach .78 in cruise. In winter it was a different plane! It could climb at 3000 ft/min plus and cruise at Mach .88. It was the only airliner that I have flown that had a different autopilot for roll and another one for pitch. In and emergency descent the two side engines could be used in reverse to get down fast. An approach was made by the pilot flying using the control column and the pilot not flying handling the three throttles on the PF commands. Getting below the computed airspeed was dangerous. The plane could take on a high descent rate without changing attitude and descend uncontrollably in what would appear to be a normal attitude until ground impact. We only had four Trident 1Es and they were delivered a year late. The penalty cost the manufacturer a lot of money. A somewhat inebriated company executive told one of our flight engineers at a party for the first delivery flight, that the money would be recovered by raising the prices of spares. This happened and the Tridents became too expensive to operate. The plane was streets ahead in advanced systems so the Chinese were interested and they bought them from us and ordered many more. When they were warned about the spares trap, the simply said that they would make their own spares! Once you knew her idiosynchrancies the Trident was a delight to fly manually. Group Captain Cunningham, the DH Chief Test Pilot showed us how to shorten the landing roll by taking reverse in the air before touch down . This took a bit of skill---too high and there would be an unpleasant thump! Only one other captain, besides myself practiced this. Once after take off from Karachi, a new copilot ( from the B 707s) when I asked for flaps up, retracted both the flaps and the L/E Slats. (as happened in this accident case.) the flashing warning lights came on and I immediately reached over and extended the L/E flaps--or we would have mushed down to a crash. We did not have that map display but in that place we had a warning system that illuminated , telling you what was the problem . This illuminated "L/E " but I had already taken remedial action. We always tested the "Stick Pusher" before the flight in the pre start cockpit checks. We trained the Chinese to fly the Trident and one rueful training flight instructor told me it was a bit hair raising as he had to issue instructions through and interpreter who translated English to Chinese! Loved flying the Trident--it was my first jet command--but you had to give her respect!

Enjoying your work keep up the great aviation content!

Really informative yet subtle at a beautiful pace..... Thank you

My father RIP was a captain on the Trident from the mid 60s to the mid 70s. He loved flying it. Very advanced for it's time. CATIII Zero visibility Full Auto land capable. Very fast cruised at M0.88 and can cruise at M0.96 if fuel consumption is not a problem. Had fans to cool the brakes. Was capable of 10,000 fpm descend rate using reverse thrust in flight. A great aircraft. It's only weakness was it's poor take-off performance in hot weather.

Congratulations on covering this so well. The Trident was a superb aircraft, although the Trident 1 (G-ARPI was a Trident 1) was very underpowered, its Rolls Royce Spey engines only developing 9,600 lbs of thrust each (the Trident Two & Three had engines pushing out nearly 12,000 lbs thrust). So after the initial climb out on take-off power, the thrust reduction to 70% was considerable and resulted in a rate of climb of a mere 500 ft/min (compared to today's airliners that achieve rates far in excess of that) and you soon realise that with an airspeed of 156 knots, the super-stall immediately doomed them all. BEA pilots at the time were deeply untrusting of the Trident's stick-push system as they'd had so many false warnings. It required a force of about 90 lbs to overcome it manually, so the dump lever was the first thing to be pulled. Many pilots rehashed this accident in the simulators. It WAS possible to recover, but ONLY if the DROOP was IMMEDIATELY selected out again, throttles were firewalled to give full power, the nose pushed forward and then immediately the speed was seen to recover, only then eased back on the control column. The simulator trace would show a recovery only feet above ground level.... All pilots need time to evaluate any aircraft incident before responding, factor that in and this was an UNRECOVERABLE tragedy. Once again, well done for bringing this excellent production to KZfaq.

This video was very interesting and informative. You do an excellent job of explaining what caused the accident. Your coverage is certainly complete.

Wow, great job of hyping up next week’s video. Fantastic video as always.

I think that a pilot who had such high morals and responsibilities, wouldn’t have flown had he had chest pain.🙄 I think the other younger pilots were still giving him a hard time, as they knew they were not being recorded.

This is a very well researched and presented video. I was living in Kent at the time, and news of the crash came on the early evening TV news. Over the next few days, reports came out that Captain Key was at a pilots meeting just before flying the plane, took the controls in a towering rage and had a heart attack during the take off. It was said that the co-pilot was perhaps not very experienced, might have panicked, and was unable to correct the stall. Tragic accident.

Excellent job researching and presenting.

Particularly excellent video. One of your best!

I'm always impressed by you knowledge and breakdowns of a vast assortment of planes and different technical components on each type making it easier for us *lay persons* to follow along.

22:28 But let us not criticize the fact that the noise abatement procedures force the pilots to fly at less than full thrust, possibly wiping out any speed margin that might have prevented the crash. Oh no, got to keep it quiet for the neighbours.

Another great video as always:)

I like it when these videos use older simulators than MSFS 2020 when describing old pre-2000 accidents as it helps gives the feel of the era.

This plane is new to me. Thanks for sharing and thanks for your work. Love your channel!

A very good summary, relecting the accident report. Many other teenagers and I were sailing on a very nearby reservoir. The wind that day was awful. Of many dinghies that day, only three of us managed to stay upright long enough to finish the race. In my case only using the jib ... I still have the trophy. Although I was always puzzled as to whether the captain was actually suffering from heart pain, there were clearly serous issues with the crew's performance. prior to the flight. One factor that always surprised me was there was no significant mention of the wind. Of course the aircraft should have been flying faster, but were they also unlucky with an unhelpful wind shift? From memory we had white water on the reservoir, with severe changes in wind direction. A glance at that day's wether chart will show what was happening.

I was going to suggest a video on the munich disaster. Glad to see you've done it already

This excellent presentation definitely deserves a subscription.

A very good breakdown of this accident. I like the matter-of-factly, no-drama style. It's unfortunate that the parties involved aren't around to tell what actually happened. I believe that Captain Key was a fine pilot, and there are so many scenarios that could have played out here, including copilot moving controls and not making call-outs, or a fight over the controls. It's hard to imagine, even with his health condition, that this salty old pilot would not be aware of his airspeed or pitch attitude.

There's a time for labor relations, and a time to fly the plane. It appears that perhaps the pilots forgot this basic rule. I would bet, because of their differences, the two young co-pilots were not communicating with the senior pilot and therefore not working together.

Absolutely fascinating: you have taught me so much. I greatly enjoy the intelligent and well presented offerings every time.

My man you put out some great content!🤩

The Hawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident and the Vickers-Armstrongs VC10 were two of my loves in British aviation.

I was there on that day. My parents lived close by and I we had just finished lunch when we heard the radio newsflash. My Dad (61 at the time) said, let's go and see! My mother declined, naturally, but I went with my father. We expected to see a belly flopped plane and passengers climbing out. So close to the airport, it didn't occur to us that there could be fatalities. We were among many who crowded the road by the crash scene. Later when the full horror became known the press called us, the sight-seers, "ghouls." I guess that they were right. I was 24 at the time and my Danish girlfriend and I made made short flights like this from Heathrow, and Gatwick. The implication of this fateful flight stayed in my mind for many years to come.

I think it's amazing that you include the musical information.

Excellent recap of what happened. Thank you!

Very cool to hear the history of the Concorde-style yoke, I love how Embraer still uses them today. Sad to hear of such unprofessionalism as graffiti in the cockpit though, I would not want someone who would do that flying 100+ passengers around.

My father tells a story that I always think about when I read/watch something on this accident anyway, he was an RAF pilot from the early 1960s through to the 1980s. Back in the mid-60s he was a co-pilot on Shackleton's and he was with a senior pilot this particular day and the procedure for take off at this airfield included checking that they had clearance on take off to cross a railway track(I kid you not!). So the pilot lines up and sets off down the runway, my father challenges him saying we don't have clearance... and sure enough turned out they didn't so they abort take-off and go again. The following day my father was hauled in in from of the Squadron Commander and told in no uncertain terms never to challenge the officer commanding the flight again! Clearly that's the kind of background Captain Key was coming from.

Another great video, well done!

Very well presented. Thank you!

If I remember correctly, the father of one of my sister's friends was a senior police officer on-site. Years later as a Chief Inspector he was on-site at the Moorgate tube disaster.

Great video as always, could you do a video on Malaysian airlines flight 17 please it's such an interesting story. Keep up the good work Chloe I absolutely love your work!!!

Your videos are great. I love Avaition videos like this but you go deeper. Even into psychology etc. You are in a niche of 1 and i think you will keep growing your channel. Best regards.

Very interesting and informative. You make it easy for non-aviation people like myself to follow.

I actually live in staines, a minute from the park where a memorial plaque lays. last year (2022) I had seen a meeting of veterans donating flowers on the anniversary day. moreover when you walk to the ponds on the right in the field you can see the real crash site.

Very well covered . Direct to the events of this disaster .

Beautifully put together program. Thanks.

Another great video! Big fan and subscriber