ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 188301
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| Date: | Sunday 21 December 1997 |
| Time: | 16:37 |
| Type: |  Cessna 152 |
| Owner/operator: | AV Aviation Ltd |
| Registration: | G-BNGD |
| MSN: | 152-83284 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Barholm Hill, near Ben John, Gatehouse of Fleet, Galloway -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Ferry/positioning |
| Departure airport: | Carlisle Airport (CAX/EGNC) |
| Prestwick Airport (PIK/EGPK) | |
| Investigating agency: | AAIB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
Written off (destroyed) 21-12-1997 when crashed at Barholm Hill, near Ben John, Gatehouse of Fleet, Galloway, Scotland. The pilot (the sole person on board) was killed. The aircraft was based at Prestwick, but had gone to Carlisle airport for rectification work on one of the instruments on the instrument panel. The accident flight was therefore a part air-test of the repair work (to see that it had been repaired and worked 'in flight') and partly a ferry flight back to the aircraft's base at Glasgow Prestwick Airport (there was pressure to get the aircraft 'home' before the Christmas and New Year holidays). According to the following extract from the official AAIB report into the accident:
"Twenty five minutes after leaving Carlisle he radioed the Scottish Information controller saying he was passing Burrow Head at 1,500 feet, and estimated that he would arrive at Prestwick at 17:00. Fifteen minutes later, at 16:27 hours, he contacted Scottish Information again to say that he had lost sight of the ground, was climbing to 4,000 feet, and turning towards the Turnberry VOR beacon. At this point he was asked by the controller where he was and the replay was near West Freugh.
Only two minutes later he again contacted Scottish Information saying that the aircraft had suffered a suction pump failure. This pump provided air for two of three gyro instruments, an attitude indicator and direction indicator, the third gyro instrument was the unserviceable turn co-ordinator.
The controller transferred the pilot to the Prestwick Approach controller who could provide radar assistance, during the initial contact with the approach controller he repeated that the suction pump had failed and he was then uncertain of the aircraft’s position. The controller requested that he continue his climb to 4,500 feet.
At 16:34 Mr Williams reported that he was flying at an indicated 4,500 feet, and the controller located an intermittent radar contact 4 miles East of Wigtown, much further East than Mr Williams thought he was. At 16:36, a radio message that was only partly intelligible was heard by the controller, it included the word descending. Soon after the radar contact was lost and when further attempts to contact the pilot failed; the aircraft was reported missing and a search operation started.
During the early hours of the 22nd December the wreckage of the Cessna and the pilot's body were found in the col between Barholm Hill and Ben John near Gatehouse of Fleet.
The aircraft had been recorded by radar as making a number of left hand orbits around the time that the 'descending' radio message was heard. The AAIB found that the aircraft had impacted in a steep turn with a high rate of descent. Without the aid of any gyro instruments it would have been "virtually impossible" to fly the aircraft safely at night and in poor weather.
The cause of the failure was not determined due to the destruction of the forward fuselage but it was thought that the hose attached to the pump had become loose and came off during the flight leading to the two gyro instruments it powered becoming useless".
Contemporary press reports (see link #5) named the pilot fatality as "Father-of-two Phillip Williams, 44, of Tower Place, Ayr Road, Kilmarnock".
Damage sustained to airframe: Per the AAIB report, "aircraft destroyed". As a a result, the registration G-BNGD was cancelled by the CAA on 21-5-1998 as "destroyed".
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
1. AAIB: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5422f9aae5274a13170007a5/dft_avsafety_pdf_500883.pdf
2. CAA: https://siteapps.caa.co.uk/g-info/rk=BNGD
3. http://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/crash_sites/scotland/cessna-152-g-bngd-barholm-hill/
4. http://jimzglebeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/wigtownshire-ramblers-three-hills-walk.html
5. http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12284096.Investigation_after_solicitor_is_killed_in_plane_crash/
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 22-Jun-2016 17:22 | Dr.John Smith | Added |
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