IN the 1970s, a plane carrying four men died after crashing near Saron. Here we take a look at the cause of the crash based on the Air Accidents Investigation Branch’s report.

On May 1, 1971, at around 2.17pm, a Piper Cherokee Arrow PA 28R-200 D-EHBR which was registered in Germany crashed at Saron.

The plane was owned by Herr U Helmouth of Humboldtring in Germany and four people were on board at the time, the pilot Herr Wilhelm Gottfried Klohoker, and three passengers: Herr Anton Block, Herr Peters and Herr Lewicki.

The report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch was published in November 1972 and written by chief inspector of accidents, V A M Hunt.

The report states that prior to crashing, the plane was cruising at around 6,000 feet altitude and was on an international private flight.

The plane made a shallow dive and climb before making a steep dive but it recovered ‘very abruptly.’ After the steep dive, the plane made a steep climb for a few seconds before the left mainplane and tail assembly broke away.

The four occupants were killed after the plane crashed into a field in Saron.

At the time of the crash, the plane was on a course from Frankfurt where it departed at 8.20am with the four occupants on board. It had landed at Ashford at 11.01am for refuelling and a visual flight  rules flight plan was filed for the remainder of its journey to Shannon. When the plane was landing at Ashford, the air traffic control had some issues with contacting the plane through radio, but it did appear that the plane’s transmitter was functioning.

Due to these issues, the plane did not take off from Ashford until 12.40pm as they had to wait for Shannon air traffic control to accept the flight without radio communication.

The aircraft took off from Ashford, but no communication was sent by the aircraft and it is not known exactly what route the aircraft took, but it is believed that the plane flew south of Gatwick control zone at or below 2,000 feet, via Midhurst to a point below Airway Green I west of Filton. This was determined due to photographs taken by the passengers and a map that was recovered from the wreckage.

The last three photographs taken by the passengers showed they were flying above clouds.

The plane was seen approaching Ammanford at 2.15pm ‘in level flight on a north westerly heading, flying above broken cloud at an estimated 6,000 feet.’

A witness who saw the plane first noticed it by hearing the Lycoming 10-360-CIC engine, and said it sounded like it was operating steadily at a high RPM. When the witness saw the plane, they said that it seemed to be travelling faster and higher than other light aircraft that were seen in the area, and as it approached Ammanford the engine seemed to splutter or falter but then recovered power.

The witness said that the plane then went into the shallow dive and shallow climb, which saw it fly through broken cloud, before it altered its course to the left and continued its original line.

The witness said that a few moments later, the engine spluttered again and died away and the plane went into a steep dive, recovered into a steep climb that lasted for a few seconds before a crunch was heard by the witness around one and a half miles downwind. The aircraft then turned around 180 degrees to the left as the left wing and other parts of the plane became detached, with the remainder of the plane crashing into the field.

There was no fire as the plane crashed but the occupants were killed instantly.

In the report, it states that the plane was destroyed and there was minor damage done to grazing land.

As part of the investigation, the board looked into the pilot and occupants to determine if any one or thing on board could have contributed to the crash.

They found that the 35-year-old pilot held a private pilot’s licence issued in the Federal Republic of Germany and had learnt to fly on gliders in 1966 before taking a course in April 1970 on powered aircraft which qualified him to fly the plane.

Up to September 9, 1970, he had 57 hours and 47 minutes flying time, with 25 hours of this being as pilot-in-command according to records, however, his wife told investigators that he had flown about 170 hours between January and December 1970.

His post mortem found that he had died from multiple severe injuries but had no evidence of alcohol, drugs or carbon monoxide in his system.

The three passengers all died due to severe injuries and none had any flying experience. Herr Block was sitting in the right-hand pilot’s seat, with Herr Peters and Herr Lewicki in the rear seats.

It was found that Herr Block had previously suffered a heart attack and he had been prescribed tablets for coronary insufficiency and hypertension, with the tablets being found in the wreckage.

The plane itself was a year old when the crash happened. The four-seat low-wing monoplane was exported from the USA and assembled in Switzerland in May 1970. It had a retractable landing gear and 200 HP fuel injection engine driving a constant speed propeller. It was equipped with dual controls and for flight in instrument meteorological conditions.

The plane had been in the air for around 140 hours and was under the relevant maintenance support and certificates were provided. It had been inspected after 100 hours in flight, meaning when the accident occurred it had only flown 40 hours after the inspection. The log book showed no outstanding defects.

The plane was slightly overweight when taking off, with a base weight of 710kg on December 7, 1970, and the estimated 328kg weight of the four people on board, 55kg for the luggage which was recovered at the scene, and 137kg weight for a full load of fuel that was on board when the plane left Ashford, it put the plane’s weight at 1,230kg, above the maximum weight of 1,179kg. The centre of gravity was also said to have been further forward of mid-range but it was in the permitted limits.

The report calculated that at the time of the crash, based on the fuel burn-off of 45kg from Ashford to Ammanford, the weight would have been 1,185kg, still above the maximum weight but the gravity would have been in the permitted numbers.

The Met Office provided investigators with a report of the weather conditions at the time of the crash. It was reported that there was a north-easterly wind gradient and between 3/8 and 5/8 cloud with a base from 3,000 to 4,000 feet and up to about 6,000 feet. There was estimated to be light to occasionally moderate turbulence in the cloud above 4,000 feet.

There was no warning of moderate or severe turbulence any lower than 20,000 feet and mechanical turbulence from wind and terrain effects would have been ‘other than slight’ at 6,000 feet.

A pilot who flew a light aircraft in the area about two hours after the crash reported that there were smooth flying conditions between 1,000 and 2,000 feet.

Witnesses stated it was a fine and sunny day with some heat haze but that clouds appeared to be greater than the 5/8 stated by the Met Office. They said winds at the surface were light north-easterly at about 5 knots and light conditions were excellent.

Investigators found that the pilot was successfully following the appropriate track over Strumble to Shannon which was confirmed by the VHF navigation receiver. Two communication transceivers were in the plane and were on a frequency of 121.7MHz which is not used by airborne traffic in the UK. The contact with Ashford as mentioned earlier was not satisfactorily established and was on the 119.1MHz frequency.

At the crash site, investigators found that the fuselage had the right wing and engine still attached and it struck the ground on its left side in a steep nose-down attitude and a high rate of descent. The left wing had its landing gear attached and extended and fell around 400 metres to the north of the main wreckage. The left wing flap and parts of the tail assembly fell within 450 metres to the north and west of the fuselage.

Parts of the cabin were spread ‘over an area of 500 metres by 1,700 metres along a track of 210 degrees(M) downwind of the point where the left wing where the left wing fell.’

It is believed that the aircraft broke up at about 4,000 feet above mean sea level when travelling in a southerly direction. All of the plane aside from the stabilator trim jack, parts of the mounting bracket, connecting rod and part of the underside on the anti-servo tab that the rod was connected to, was recovered.

There was no evidence of pre-crash defects or overspeeding on examination of the engine. It could not be determined if the autopilot had been engaged as the cockpit, control panels and equipment were completely destroyed.

A detailed examination of the wreckage by the Royal Aircraft Establishment found that the left wind had detached by the main spar breaking at the root end close to the fuselage, but there was no evidence the wing had struck the tail assembly.

The investigation concluded that the left wing failed as a result of the application of excessive up-stabilator during abrupt recovery from a steep dive, but was inconclusive as to why the plane had deviated from the level flight into the manoeuvres that resulted in the wing failure.

One potential reason they considered was that Herr Block who was sitting in the right-hand pilot’s seat could have suffered a heart attack and as he was not wearing a shoulder strap, could have collapsed forward onto the controls, which would have led to the steep dive. The post mortem showed there was a recent heart attack, but it could not be determined when exactly this took place, so may not have been in the aircraft and there is no direct evidence to confirm this theory of the investigators.