On 4 June 1967, a Canadair C-4 Argonaut passenger aircraft owned by British Midland Airways operating as British Midland Flight 542 crashed near the centre of Stockport, Cheshire, England. Of the 84 people on board, 72 were killed. It is the fourth-worst accident in British aviation history, and happened just a day after the 1967 Air Ferry DC-4 accident
Accident
The aircraft, registered had been chartered by Arrowsmith Holidays Ltd and had left Palma de Mallorca at 5:00 am, carrying holidaymakers back from the Balearic Islands to Manchester Airport. The approach controller vectored the aircraft towards the ILS as soon as it reached the Congleton NDB, but the pilots were apparently unable to put the aircraft on the extended runway centreline and called an overshoot. As the aircraft was making a second approach to the airport, the No. 3 and 4 engines suddenly cut out over Stockport. The No. 4 propeller was feathered, but No. 3 kept windmilling. The aircraft became uncontrollable and crashed at 10:09 am local time in a small open area at Hopes Carr, close to the town centre.
Despite the crash occurring in a densely populated area, there were no fatalities on the ground. Members of the public and police risked harm to save 12 people from the mangled debris. However, a fire started towards the rear of the aircraft after the fuel tanks had ruptured and worked back through the cabin, engulfing and killing most of the fuel-soaked passengers.
As it was a Sunday and most people were not at work, the accident drew a large crowd, estimated at 10,000, hampering the rescue organisations.
Investigation
Investigators with the Accidents Investigation Branch (AIB) determined that the double engine failure had been caused by fuel starvation, due to a previously unrecognised flaw in the model's fuel system. The Argonaut had eight fuel tanks, divided into pairs. Each pair fed one engine, but there was also a cross-feed system that allowed fuel from a pair of tanks to be fed to other engines, if necessary. It was found that the selectors controlling the cross-feed valves were poorly placed in the cockpit, and difficult to operate, also giving an unclear indication of what was selected. This could cause the inadvertent selection of cross-feed from some pairs of tanks, leading to the exhaustion of fuel in those tanks and the failure of the associated engine.
These problems had been noticed by pilots of other Argonauts before, but neither British Midland nor the other airlines using the Argonaut (Trans-Canada Airlines and Canadian Pacific Airlines) had reported it to the manufacturer. Without this information, the AIB believed that it would have been extremely difficult for the pilots of G-ALHG to determine the exact nature of the emergency.
Legacy
thumb|The two memorials at the crash site in [[Stockport]]
The near-simultaneous occurrence of the Stockport Air Disaster on 4 June 1967 and the Air Ferry DC-4 accident on 3 June 1967 caused considerable public anxiety in the United Kingdom regarding the safety of commercial air travel, particularly on chartered flights operated by independent airlines using older piston-engined aircraft. Media coverage at the time raised concerns over the maintenance standards and operational oversight of such carriers, prompting calls for stricter regulation of non-scheduled services. Although there was no long-term decline in passenger numbers, the incidents contributed to increasing scrutiny from aviation authorities and helped to accelerate the retirement of aging aircraft from passenger service.
In 1998, a memorial plaque was unveiled by two survivors at the scene of the accident. In 2002, a campaign was launched to create a further memorial at the site, commemorating the rescuers who risked their lives to pull survivors from the burning aeroplane; the campaign was supported by the then Prime Minister Tony Blair. The second memorial was unveiled that October.
A service was held in 2007 to mark the 40th anniversary. On 4 June 2017, the 50th anniversary of the crash (and also a Sunday), a service was led at the time and place of the crash by the Bishop of Stockport, Libby Lane, and new information boards were unveiled giving details of the crash and the names of those who died. Ian Barrie, an aviation expert, and Roger Boden produced a documentary, Six Miles from Home, for the 50th anniversary.