1945 Broadway Consolidated Liberator crash
53 Squadron, Royal Air Force Consolidated Liberator C Mk VIII · Pilot error
From RAF Merryfield to India
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
- 27 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 27
- 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
- Military
Consolidated Liberator C Mk VIII
- Aircraft type
- Consolidated LIBERATOR C MK
- 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
- KH126
- Operator
- 53 Squadron, Royal Air Force
- Onboard fatalities
- 27
- Route
- From RAF MerryfieldTo India
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
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 1945 Broadway Consolidated Liberator crash occurred on 22 November 1945 when a Royal Air Force Consolidated Liberator C Mk VIII transport crashed into a hill in poor visibility, shortly after take-off from RAF Merryfield. The aircraft (serial number KH126) was on a trooping flight from England to India, with five crew and 22 passengers, all of whom were killed. The remote site is about 6 mi from RAF Merryfield, northeast of Buckland St. Mary, west of Broadway, and is marked with a memorial.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The cause of the crash was determined to be pilot error. After takeoff, the captain made a turn to the left well below the 1,500 feet minimum required as perstandard departure procedures. Low visibility and poor weather conditions were considered as contributory factors.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1945 Broadway Consolidated Liberator crash” (revision 1372992264, 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: 1945 Broadway Consolidated Liberator crash
- Revision
- 1372992264 · 2026-09-03 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q20870280
- 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 "1945 Broadway Consolidated Liberator crash" (page 47169847, revision 1372992264)
- 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
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- 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.