The 1935 SABENA Savoia-Marchetti S.73 crash occurred on 10 December 1935 when Savoia-Marchetti S.73 OO-AGN of Belgian airline SABENA crashed at

Tatsfield Tatsfield is a village and civil parish in the Tandridge District of Surrey, England. It is located 3.3 miles north west of Westerham and 3.9 miles north east of Oxted, and is adjacent to the Surrey border with both Greater London and Kent. Geo ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, England, while on an international scheduled flight from Brussels Airport Haren, Belgium to

Croydon Airport Croydon Airport was the UK's only international airport during the interwar period. It opened in 1920, located near Croydon, then part of Surrey. Built in a Neoclassical architecture, Neoclassical style, it was developed as Britain's main airp ...

, United Kingdom. All eleven passengers and crew were killed.

Aircraft

The accident aircraft was Savoia-Marchetti S.73 OO-AGN, c/n 30004. The aircraft had entered service on 6 May 1935.

Accident

The aircraft was operating an international scheduled service from Haren Airport in Brussels to

Croydon Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...

, the main airport of London. Between 16:30 and 17:00 GMT, the aircraft crashed into the large garden of a house ''Mosscroft'', Kemsley Road, Tatsfield, close to its aerial beacon and north of the village towards

Biggin Hill Biggin Hill is a town in the London Borough of Bromley, about south-southeast of Charing Cross. It is separated from London's built-up area by the Metropolitan green belt and is located adjacent to the Greater London boundary with Kent and ...

. The aircraft crashed into the north-sloping hillside at about , below the top of the hill. Witnesses who heard the aircraft in flight stated that the engines were not running smoothly. Other aircraft flying that night had encountered icing of their wings. All eleven people on board were killed in the accident. Police and ambulances from Biggin Hill,

Oxted Oxted is a town and civil parish in the Tandridge District, Tandridge district of Surrey, England. It is at the foot of the North Downs, south-east of Croydon, west of Sevenoaks, and north of East Grinstead. Oxted is a commuter town and Ox ...

and Tatsfield attended. It was the early hours of 11 December before all the victims' bodies had been recovered. A number of sightseers looted portions of the wreckage for souvenirs, which was criticised by Major Cooper, the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force and civil aviation that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the ...

inspector in charge of the investigation into the accident. Evidence given at the inquest indicated that the aircraft had stalled, with the engines not at full power at the time of the accident. Carburettor icing was ruled out as a cause of the accident. A temporary mortuary was set up in St Lawrence's Church,

Caterham Caterham () is a town in the Tandridge (district), Tandridge district of Surrey, England. The town is administratively divided into two: Caterham on the Hill, and Caterham Valley, which includes the main town centre in the middle of a dry valle ...

. Identification of all victims was by means of passports and other identity papers they were carrying. The inquest into the deaths of the victims opened in Caterham on 16 January 1936. Evidence was given that the pilot was experienced, having been employed by SABENA since 1927. No distress calls had been made by radio. Verdicts of "accidental death" were returned in all cases.

Casualties

Among the casualties was British engineer and tank designer

Sir John Carden Sir John Valentine Carden, 6th Baronet MBE (6 February 1892 – 10 December 1935) was an English tank and vehicle designer. He was the sixth baronet of Templemore, County Tipperary, from 1931. Work Born in London, Carden ran a company from 1 ...

, joint owner of aircraft manufacturer Carden-Baynes, and a director of

Vickers-Armstrongs Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, w ...

. Another victim was Eugène Samyn, 48-year-old, textile manufacturer, on a business trip to London. Dutch middleweight

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

champion Florend Willems was scheduled to be on the flight. Instead, he decided to travel by boat. He was due to fight Jack Hyams in

Stepney Stepney is an area in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London. Stepney is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name was applied to ...

on 11 December.

Investigation

The final report into the accident concluded that pilot error was the main cause, with weather a contributory factor. The pilot had become lost and stalled while trying to execute a sharp climbing turn, possibly in an effort to avoid flying into terrain. When the aircraft stalled, the passengers would have been thrown forwards, which might have made recovery from the stall harder.

References

External links

Contemporary newspaper cutting
showing a photograph of the wreckage. Text in French.
Photo of a Savoia-Marchetti S.73
{{DEFAULTSORT:SABENA crash Sabena accidents and incidents 1935 in aviation 1935 in England Aviation accidents and incidents in England Disasters in Surrey Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error Transport in Surrey Airliner accidents and incidents in the United Kingdom 1935 disasters in the United Kingdom December 1935