Date:	Wednesday 15 August 1973
Time:	17:34 UTC
Type:	Beagle A.61 Terrier 2
Owner/operator:	Private
Registration:	G-ARZT
MSN:	B.602
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 3
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Category:	Accident
Location:	Home Farm, Leigh, near Tonbridge, Kent -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Private
Departure airport:	Lympne Airport, Lympne, Kent (LYM/EGMK)
Destination airport:	Blackbushe Airport, Camberley, Surrey
Investigating agency:	AIB
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
On 15 August 1973 Captain D.W.H.Heard, an experienced airline pilot, was flying himself and two passengers in Beagle Terrier G-ARZT from Le Touquet to Lympne, to clear customs, before returning to the aeroplane's home airport, Blackbushe. The first leg of the flight passed without incident. At Lympne, customs' facilities were attended to and the aeroplane took off in late afternoon. However not far into the second leg of the flight engine trouble was experienced. The Terrier was seen to be circling, between Leigh and Tonbridge, with its engine faltering. Evidently Capt. Heard was looking for somewhere suitable to make a forced landing. Presumably he selected what he considered to be a suitable field at Home Farm, Leigh (two miles west of Tonbridge) - although there were cows on its southern edge, electricity cables along its northern edge and corn growing in part of it . According to a witness he made his approach to the field with little or no power. Having almost cleared the crop of corn, at a height of 75 to 100 feet the aircraft stalled and pancaked in, with little forward speed and a slightly nose down attitude. The force of the impact was such that Capt. Heard and his rear seat passenger were killed almost instantaneously. However a seven year old child, in the other front seat, escaped with only minor injuries (due to his small size, it is said). There was no fire but the aeroplane was destroyed.

The AIB investigated the accident and produced a report. It concluded that the induction manifold of the aeroplane's engine was corroded and partially disintegrated and that this was the cause of the engine problems and loss of power. Even until the last it seems that the engine had not failed completely - which may have proved to be Capt. Heard's undoing. The AIB inspector could not understand why so experienced a pilot - Capt. Heard had flown nearly 14,000 hours - should allow the aeroplane to stall as he could have put down in the corn if he couldn't reach the grass beyond it. However the report suggests at this very point of his approach the engine gave a burst of power which led him to believe that he could reach the grass. But that burst of power must have been temporary and whilst Capt. Heard wrestled with the engine, presumably he neglected to note that his air speed was falling off (a problem compounded by the fact that the aeroplane's stall indicator had been disconnected). Thus the inevitable occurred and the aeroplane stalled. Once it had stalled, it appears that Capt. Heard attempted a recovery but he had insufficient height to achieve that.

There was another element that may have played a rôle in the chain of events that led to the Terrier stalling and crashing. On analysis of his blood, Capt. Heard was found to have a blood/alcohol level which was twice the then legal limit for drivers of motor vehicles - and the level would have been higher still at the time of the Terrier's departure from Le Touquet. The AIB referred to expert evidence which suggested that: 'this concentration of alcohol would almost certainly produce a significant decrease in performance and sensory capacity' and concluded that Capt. Heard's 'failure to avoid a stall was partially attributable to the amount of alcohol he had consumed'. And to that the AIB added that: 'had [the stall warning] device been operative, the pilot might have been alerted in time to prevent the stall'.

The AIB concluded that: 'The cause of the accident was a stall at low altitude during an attempted forced landing following a loss of engine power. The pilot's ability to avoid the onset of a stall in these conditions was impaired by the amount of alcohol in his system'. But it might be simpler to say that he and the passenger died as a result of a fatal chain of events. Had the engine been adequately maintained, Capt. Heard might not have experienced the problems with it; and had there been no engine problems, a forced landing would not have been necessary; and had Capt. Heard not been drinking, he might have decided not to stretch his glide but put down in the corn, probably with less disastrous consequences to the aeroplane and those on board; and had the engine not given a final burst of power, Capt. Heard might have been more focussed on his approach and maintaining flying speed; and had the stall warning device not been disconnected, Capt. Heard might have become aware of the incipient stall before it occurred and/or been able to recover from it. And but for all of these, the Terrier might not have crashed and two lives might not have been lost.

Registration G-ARZT belatedly cancelled by the CAA on 01/02/1982 as "PWFU" ("Permanently Withdrawn From Use")

1. Kent & Sussex Courier - Friday 17 August 1973
2. Reading Evening Post - Thursday 16 August 1973
3. Reading Evening Post - Tuesday 21 August 1973
4. Reading Evening Post - Monday 6 May 1974
5. Daily Mirror - Friday 26 July 1974
6. AAIB: https://assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk/media/5422eed6e5274a1314000229/10-1974_G-ARZT.pdf
7. CAA: https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-ARZT.pdf
8. https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1054083
9. https://aflyinghistory.com/search-aeroplane-photographs?query=G-ARZT
10. https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1974/1974
11. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=16861.0
12. https://www.na3t.org/air/photo/LA01072-3
13. G-ARZT at Blackbushe 4/2/1971: https://www.na3t.org/air/photo/WB00105-16
14. https://www.flickr.com/photos/egbj/5632813940/in/photolist-9zKDkJ

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
17-May-2008 11:10	ASN archive	Added
23-Feb-2012 19:23	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Phase, Source, Narrative]
16-Jun-2013 22:59	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative]
16-Jun-2013 23:00	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
16-Jun-2013 23:07	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
06-Jul-2015 02:29	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Embed code]
19-Oct-2015 18:37	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Time, Source, Embed code]
21-Jul-2020 22:27	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
21-Jul-2020 22:35	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]