1912 Brooklands Flanders Monoplane crash
Flanders F.3 · Pilot error
From Brooklands Aerodrome, Surrey, United Kingdom to Brooklands Aerodrome
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
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 2
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Flanders F.3
- Aircraft type
- Flanders F-3
- 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
- Unknown
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- 2
- Route
- From Brooklands Aerodrome, Surrey, United KingdomTo Brooklands Aerodrome
Cause areas
- 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
The 1912 Brooklands Flanders Monoplane crash was the first aviation accident in which an investigation was made into the cause of the accident and a report subsequently published, thus marking the start of aviation accident investigation worldwide. A Flanders F.3 Monoplane crashed at Brooklands, Surrey, United Kingdom, killing the pilot and his passenger. The cause was determined to be pilot error.
Accident
On 13 May 1912, the aircraft took off from Brooklands Aerodrome with the pilot and a passenger on board. Two circuits of the aerodrome were flown before the aircraft was seen to side-slip, stall and crash from an altitude of 200 ft. The pilot was thrown clear, but the passenger remained in the wrecked aircraft, which caught fire. Both were killed. The aircraft had been flying in a tail-low attitude before the turn was initiated. The accident was witnessed by a crowd of about 200 people. A Coroner's inquest was held in Weybridge. The jury returned verdicts of "accidental death" in both cases.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The accident was investigated by the Public Safety and Accidents Investigation Committee of the Royal Aero Club. The committee had been established on 27 February 1912. The cause was determined to be pilot error. The committee published its report on 4 June 1912 and recommended that the main committee of the Royal Aero Club publish the report in extenso. Thus the first report into an aviation accident was published in Flight on 8 June, marking the start of the science of aviation accident investigation. The report established a format of facts, analysis, conclusions and recommendations that is still in use a century later.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1912 Brooklands Flanders Monoplane crash” (revision 1319852533, 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: 1912 Brooklands Flanders Monoplane crash
- Revision
- 1319852533 · 2025-11-01 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q4559465
- 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 "1912 Brooklands Flanders Monoplane crash" (page 36097389, revision 1319852533)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17)
- 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
- not stated in the Wikipedia article's infobox or opening paragraph
- 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.