Episode 11 - Fires on board commercial airliners and the mystery of the SAA Helderberg

This episode covers the terrifying examples of fire on board commercial airliners.

One of the first was the Imperial Airways Armstrong Argosy II incident in Dixmude Belgium in 1933 where a fire thought to have been started by a passenger attempting to commit suicide caused the plane to crash killing all 15 on board.

It was the deadliest accident at that point in the history of British civil aviation. It is also thought to be one of the first airliner ever lost due to sabotage.

When you hear the story, perhaps you’ll agree with the findings at the time during the investigation. Everything centred around one passenger, by the name of Albert Voss, who was seen to jump from the aircraft as it came down over the Belgian countryside.

Imperial's London–Brussels–Cologne route had been flown since 1928.

But on the 28th March 1933 the plane was travelling from Brussels to London taking it over the northern Flanders region before crossing the coast for the 50 mile flight across the English Channel.

It was delayed and eventually took off at 12.30 in the afternoon. While flying over Flanders, onlookers saw flames burst from the fuselage, before the aircraft lost altitude and plunged to the ground. As the Armstrong Argosy biplane slipped from the sky, a passenger was seen falling from the rear – someone had jumped.

Another example of an accident that was caused by crew actions combined with a design fault was the United Airlines Flight 608 Douglas DC-6 on 24 October 1947. The four engine plane, registration NC37510, was on a scheduled passenger flight from Los Angeles to Chicago when it crashed just before 12.30 in the afternoon southeast of Bryce Canyon Airport, Utah, United States.

5 crew and 47 passengers died – all on board. It was also the deadliest air crash in the United States aviation history at the time and caused by a fire on board.

Sometimes lateral thinking by pilots can be fatal if operating procedure is flouted.

One of these lateral thinkers was the pilot of Swissair Flight SR306, a Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle III, which was a scheduled international flight from Zürich to Rome, via Geneva. His decisions which flew in the face of standard operating procedure doomed his passengers and crew unfortunately.

The Sud-Aviation SE 210 crashed near Dürrenäsch, Aargau, on September 4, 1963, shortly after take-off, killing all 80 people on board.

Another example of crew error which led to a fire took place near Toronto, Canada, on the 7th May 1970 where an Air Canada McDonnell Douglas DC-8 exploded after leaking fuel ignited – 109 on board died.

This was an example of pilot error, but also a confused use of spoilers which are designed to slow an aircraft down rapidly. It was the misuse that led directly to a fire and explosions as you’ll hear.

Had the crew followed the check list this accident would not have happened, as is the case with so many disasters.

Captain Peter Hamilton and First Officer Donald Rowland had flown together before this terrible incident – but they seemed out of kilter when it came to exactly when to arm the spoilers. The check list indicated the spoilers should have been armed at the beginning of the final approach. Yet hoth agreed they’d arm the spoilers in the middle of the landing flare when the engines were throttled back and the plane was close to the runway.

The final example in this episode is of South African Airways flight 295 probably one of the more mysterious in-flight fires where the cause has never been identified.

It is known as the Helderberg disaster in South Africa.