2008 Biggin Hill Cessna Citation crash
Ross Air Cessna 501 Citation · Engine failure, pilot error
From London Biggin Hill Airport (BQH) to Pau Pyrénées Airport (PUF)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC08RA149
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 5 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 5
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Unknown
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna 501 Citation
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 501
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- VP-BGE
- Operator
- Ross Air
- Onboard fatalities
- 5
- Route
- From London Biggin Hill Airport (BQH)To Pau Pyrénées Airport (PUF)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Personnel issues › Task performance
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 30 March 2008, a Cessna 501 Citation crashed into a house in Farnborough, London (UK), near Biggin Hill Airport, from where the aircraft had taken off a short time before. There were no survivors among the five people on board, which included former racing drivers Richard Lloyd and David Leslie.
Accident flight
The Citation took off at 14:32 local time from runway 21 at Biggin Hill airport, with destination Pau Pyrénées Airport in France. Less than two minutes into the flight, the pilot radioed an emergency call, reporting "engine vibrations" and requesting an immediate return to Biggin Hill. The aircraft was given permission to land on any runway, and the pilots indicated that they would attempt to return to the departure runway. Shortly after the radio call the aircraft rapidly lost altitude and at 14:37 crashed into a property in Romsey Close, Farnborough. There were no survivors from the wreckage, which was consumed by fire, as was the house that the aircraft struck. A neighbouring property was also damaged by fire.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
An Investigation was conducted by the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB), assisted by the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration and by the aircraft manufacturer, Cessna and the engine manufacturer, Pratt & Whitney Canada. The preliminary report from the AAIB revealed that there was no debris found on the runway at Biggin Hill, and no evidence of a bird strike or foreign object damage to either engine.
The AAIB published its formal report into the accident on 21 May 2010. It concluded that:
the "engine vibration" reported by the pilots most likely came not from an engine itself, but from the faulty air cycle machine;
a missing rivet head on the left fuel cut-off lever could have resulted in the pilots shutting down that engine inadvertently;
both engines had been shut down, either intentionally or not, during the course of the short flight. The crew had subsequently tried to restart both engines, but had attempted to relight the second engine before the first one had reached sufficient speed, causing the relight of both engines to fail.
An inquest into the death of the five victims opened on 31 May 2011 in Bromley, London. The inquest concluded on 1 June with verdicts of accidental death being returned in all five cases.
Text from the Wikipedia article “2008 Biggin Hill Cessna Citation crash” (revision 1339305714, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
NTSB narrative
On March 30, 2008, at 1338 universal coordinated time, a Cessna Citation 500, Bermudian registration VP-BGE, was destroyed when it impacted a residence shortly after takeoff from the Biggin Hill Airport, Farnborough, Kent, United Kingdom. The two flight crew members and 3 passengers were fatally injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and an instrument flight rules flight plan had been filed for the personal flight destined for Pau, France.
The airplane departed runway 21 at 1333. The copilot requested to return to the airport due to an unspecified problem, and stated that they were experiencing an engine vibration.
This investigation is under jurisdiction of the AAIB. Any further information pertaining to this accident may be obtained from:
Department of Transport Air Accidents Investigation Branch Berkshire Copse Road Aldershot Hants GU11 2HH United Kingdom
This report is for informational purposes and contains only information released by the United Kingdom.
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: 2008 Biggin Hill Cessna Citation crash
- Revision
- 1339305714 · 2026-02-19 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q4610613
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record NYC08RA149
- Event ID
- 20080502X00587
- Case number
- NYC08RA149
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "2008 Biggin Hill Cessna Citation crash" (page 16689470, revision 1339305714); merged with NTSB case NYC08RA149 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record NYC08RA149
- Operation
- not stated in the Wikipedia article's infobox or opening paragraph
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "2008 Biggin Hill Cessna Citation crash" and NTSB case NYC08RA149, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.