1948 Heathrow disaster
Sabena Douglas DC-3C · Poor weather conditions and pilot error
From Brussels Airport (BRU) to London Heathrow Airport (LHR)
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
- 20 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 22
- Survivors
- 2
- 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
- 2
- 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
Douglas DC-3C
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-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
- OO-AWH
- Operator
- Sabena
- Onboard fatalities
- 20
- Route
- From Brussels Airport (BRU)To London Heathrow Airport (LHR)
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The 1948 Heathrow disaster was the crash of a Douglas DC-3C of the Belgian airline Sabena at Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom on 2 March 1948. It was the first major accident at Heathrow Airport; of the 22 people on board 20 were killed, of whom most had British nationality.
Crash
The Sabena flight departed from Brussels, Belgium en route to London, United Kingdom under the command of pilot Henri Goblet and radio officer Jean Lomba.
Workers in a hangar nearby saw the aircraft crash on the runway and quickly went to the survivors' aid. When they reached the aircraft, there was utter devastation; only the tail section of the aircraft was left intact. However, there were survivors and the workers quickly pulled a few passengers from the burning wreckage. They could hear the screams of those still trapped in the inferno and despite all their efforts those people perished. When emergency personnel finally arrived on the scene, there was no one left to save. It was later concluded that a high number of passengers survived the crash but died in the blaze either by burning to death or smoke inhalation. The three survivors were badly burned and were quickly taken to the hospital, where one of them soon died from his injuries. One of the survivors was former MP Otho Nicholson.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1948 Heathrow disaster” (revision 1339307654, 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: 1948 Heathrow disaster
- Article
- 1948 Heathrow disaster
- Revision
- 1339307654 · 2026-02-19 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q25230570
- 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 "1948 Heathrow disaster" (page 49315278, revision 1339307654)
- 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
- operator is an airline according to Wikidata
- 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.