Accident description
Date: 09 AUG 1968
Time: 13:04
Type: Vickers 739A Viscount
Operator: British Eagle International Airlines
Registration: G-ATFN
Msn / C/n: 394
Year built: 1958
Crew: 4 fatalities / 4 on board
Passengers: 44 fatalities / 44 on board
Total: 48 fatalities / 48 on board
Airplane damage: Written off
Location: near Langenbrück (Germany)
Phase: En route (ENR)
Nature: International Scheduled Passenger
Departure airport: London-Heathrow Airport (LHR)
Destination airport: Innsbruck Airport (INN)
The flight had departed London at 11:37 for Innsbruck and had
just passed the Mike NDB near Munich at FL210 when it lost control. The Viscount
crashed onto the Nürnberg-München highway in a slightly nose-down
attitude and broke up on impact.
PROBABLE CAUSE:
"The accident is attributable to the fact that the aircraft's electrical
power supply failed in cruising flight - possibly without the generator warning
lights illuminating or illuminating distinctly - which meant that during the
subsequent descent, which had to be carried out by instruments because of
the weather, the vital instruments for indicating the flight attitude showed
increasingly incorrect readings and failed completely after the gyros had
stopped rotating.
Under these conditions it was unavoidable for the aircraft to get into uncontrolled
flight attitudes, in which it was subjected to severe loading. These loads
exceeded the ultimate load and led to structural failure.Following the fracture
of the wings and elevator and when the crew came into visual contact with
the ground, it was no longer possible to exert any decisive control over the
flight path.It has not been possible to determine with certainty the cause
of failure of the electrical system. It may be assumed, however, that a fault
occurred in the DC generator control circuit. Faults had occurred repeatedly
in the electrical supply system without their true cause being discovered."