Meesden Green air accident
Skyways Handley Page Hermes · Loss of control due to elevator malfunction
From London Stansted Airport (STN) to London Stansted Airport (STN)
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
- 3 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- 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
Handley Page Hermes
- Aircraft type
- Handley PAGE HERMES
- 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-ALDV
- Operator
- Skyways
- Onboard fatalities
- 3
- Route
- From London Stansted Airport (STN)To London Stansted Airport (STN)
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
The Meesden Green air accident occurred on 1 April 1958 on a test flight, departing from London Stansted Airport, of a Handley Page Hermes of Skyways Limited. The entire three-member crew of the aircraft was killed in the accident.
Accident sequence
The aircraft took off at 10:59 and climbed steeply in a north-westerly direction. A few minutes later, eyewitnesses observed the aircraft approaching the airport from the west at an altitude of 1,500 feet. At 11:13, air traffic control received a distress call from the aircraft, in which the captain reported that the controls were defective. At about the same time, eyewitnesses observed the aircraft performing a series of climbs and descents six miles north-east of the airport. Shortly afterwards the aircraft crashed into a field, killing all three occupants. Much of the aircraft was destroyed by the subsequent fire.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The accident investigation revealed that the aircraft had struck the ground on a heading of 040 degrees and with a pitch angle of −14 degrees. The debris field extended over a length of 200 yards. The fuselage had broken apart in the middle, and the section containing the cockpit lay almost on the top of the fuselage. All four engines and the port wing had been torn off the aircraft. Except for the tail unit, the wreckage was severely burnt.
The accident investigation was able to establish that at the time of the accident the elevator had been jammed by the action of a foreign object, presumably a split pin. Notches on the elevator mechanism indicated that considerable force had been applied in an attempt to regain control of the elevator. The foreign object could not be found, and it was assumed that it had worked itself loose from the elevator mechanism on impact.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall bei Meesden Green” (revision 226462029, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall bei Meesden Green
- Article
- Flugunfall bei Meesden Green
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 226462029 · 2022-09-25 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q109664816
- 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
- de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall bei Meesden Green" (page 12006579, revision 226462029), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- 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 article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.