The national anthems at the Wales vs England rugby international in Cardiff today were preceded by a silence for the victims of the Llandow air disaster of 1950.
The disaster involved a plane - an Avro Tudor - that had been chartered to take Welsh fans to and from the Five Nations game against Ireland, which was played at the Ravenhill Stadium in Belfast. The Avro crashed at Llandow aerodrome when attempting to land after its return flight.
Eighty people died in the crash - 75 rugby fans and all 5 of the crew. At the time it was the worst air disaster the world had seen.
An inquiry found that the probable cause of the accident was the loading of the aircraft, which had moved its centre of gravity considerably aft of where it should have been.
You can read more in the Wikipedia article on the Llandow Air Disaster. The photo above is taken from The Sphere, 18 March 1950.
A pedant writes - Wasn't it the Foiur Nations in those days? The French didn't get involved until the 1970s, I think.
ReplyDeleteIt became the Five Nations when France joined in 1910. They did drop out between 1932 and 1939, and the tournament was then not held again until 1947, but they rejoined it then and have taken part ever since.
DeleteSorry - my mistake.
ReplyDeleteI wondered whether the fact that the only 3 survivors of the Avro Tudor crash were right at the back had been in Nevil Shute's mins when he wrote No Highway - a novel about fatigue failures in a new airliner in which as I recall the hero advises an air hostess friend to get into the toilet at the rear of the plane in the event of trouble, but I see that No Highway was actually written before the Llandow crash.
ReplyDelete