Hunting Air Travel Nice–Malta flight
Vickers VC.1 Viking · Controlled flight into terrain
From Bovingdon Airport to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)
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
- 31 · 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
- 0
- 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 VC.1 Viking
- Aircraft type
- Vickers VC-1
- 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
- Hunting Air Travel
- Onboard fatalities
- 31
- Route
- From Bovingdon AirportTo Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The Hunting Air Travel Nice–Malta flight was a flight of the British private company Hunting Air Travel that crashed into Monte Serra di Biondo, near Burgio, on 16 February 1952. All 31 occupants of the aircraft lost their lives in the impact.
The accident and the search
The aircraft, a Vickers VC.1 Viking, had departed from Bovingdon Airport. After a stopover in Nice, it had departed again in the direction of Malta, where it was due to stop for one day. The final destination was Nairobi Airport.
The last signal from the aircraft, while it was flying over Sardinia, had been picked up by Rome-Ciampino Airport. Expected in Malta at 18:30, when it failed to arrive the Maltese authorities raised the alarm. The search, conducted by 8 aircraft, went on throughout the night between Saturday and Sunday, until the remains of an aircraft were identified in the mountains near Bivona. Specifically at 1,138 m, on the slopes of Monte Sierra di Biondo, about 5 km from Burgio.
All the occupants of the aircraft lost their lives in the impact: 26 passengers, including 3 children, and 5 crew members. They were all British citizens with the exception of one Italian.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Italian Wikipedia article “Volo Hunting Air Travel Nizza-Malta” (revision 124023543, 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
Italian Wikipedia article: Volo Hunting Air Travel Nizza-Malta
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 124023543 · 2021-11-14 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q24936962
- 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
- it Wikipedia article "Volo Hunting Air Travel Nizza-Malta" (page 5817332, revision 124023543), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia article: the date in its opening sentence (the infobox gives none to the day)
- 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
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): The Viking was flown by the air travel company Hunting Air Travel carrying 26 passengers on a multi-stop route from Bovingdon to Nairobi, a commercial passenger flight by an air carrier. The article: "was a flight of the British private company Hunting Air Travel"
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Italian Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.