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British European Airways Flight S200P

21 Apr 1948 · Irish Law Mountain, North Ayrshire, Scotland, United Kingdom

Vickers 610 Viking 1B · Controlled flight into terrain (CFIT)

From RAF Northolt (NHT) to Glasgow-Renfrew Airport

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Event

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
Event fatalities
0 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
Unknown
Survivors
20
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
13
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
Airline

Vickers 610 Viking 1B

Aircraft type
Vickers 610
Category
Airplane · from aircraft type
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
G-AIVE
Onboard fatalities
0
Route
From RAF Northolt (NHT)To Glasgow-Renfrew Airport

Cause areas

  • Personnel issues › Task performance
  • Aircraft › Aircraft systems

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

British European Airways Flight S200P was a short-haul flight in the United Kingdom from London-Northolt Airport to Glasgow-Renfrew Airport. On 21 April 1948, while on approach to Renfrew, a Vickers VC.1 Viking, registration G-AIVE, crashed into Irish Law Mountain in Ayrshire, Scotland. No one died in the accident, but 13 of the 20 passengers and crew were injured, and the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

Accident

Flight S200P had taken off 19:09 British Summer Time (18:09 GMT). After a one-hour flight, air traffic control at Glasgow-Renfrew cleared it for a standard beam approach into the airport. The last radio contact was at 20:01, when the crew requested confirmation that the outer marker was operative. As the aircraft prepared for its approach to the airport, it hit a hill nose-first and broke into 3 parts; the engine and the left wing also broke off. Although the plane burst into flames, all 20 passengers and crew escaped, and all survived. Thirteen people were injured in the accident.

Crash site today

Some remnants of G-AIVE remain on the hill at Irish Law Mountain, including the engines, landing gear, and parts of the left and right wings.

Investigation and cause

Cause

An investigation into the crash found the cause to be pilot error. Failure to receive the outer marker beacon signal (probably due to a fault that had developed in the receiver) was a contributory factor.

Text from the Wikipedia article “British European Airways Flight S200P” (revision 1360038126, 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

Sources

Wikipedia article: British European Airways Flight S200P
Article
British European Airways Flight S200P
Revision
1360038126 · 2026-06-18 · retrieved 2026-09-18
Wikidata
Q4969946
Licence
Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
Record
Wikipedia article "British European Airways Flight S200P" (page 25910492, revision 1360038126)
Date
Wikipedia infobox: date
Place and country
Wikipedia infobox: site
Map position
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)
Operation
flight number in the article title
Fatalities
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
Ground fatalities
not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Summary
Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
  • Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.