History[]
Operated by BSAA-British South American Airways as a fuel tanker on the Berlin airlift. This aircraft crashed after the airlift, in 1950, under operation by Airflight Ltd, while chartered for a return flight from Llandow, Wales to Dublin (DUB), Ireland. The passengers attended a rugby match between the teams of Ireland and Wales.
While on final approach to Llandow's runway 28 there was a slight tendency to undershoot. When 800 yards from the runway and at a height of 150 feet there was an additional use of power followed by the sudden application of full throttle. The aircraft rose steeply to 300 feet attaining a nose-up attitude of 35 degrees to the vertical. The aircraft then stalled and crashed into a field 2500 feet short of the runway.
The probable cause was determined to be due to the loading conditions of the aircraft, which gave a centre of gravity position too far aft and outside the limit in the relevant Certificate of Airworthiness, and therefor insuffucient elevator control under conditions of low speed and acute instability.[1]