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BAC111 Image: Phillip Capper from Wellington, New Zealand Flickr

This is the story of GASHG, on the 22nd of october 1963 A BAC 111 was to take off from wisley aerodrome. Now this wasn't a commercial flight in fact at that point the BAC111 hadn't even entered service yet. This was a test flight of the brand new BAC 111. This was the 111’s 53rd test flight and on that they were planning on testing the stall characteristics of the bac 111, with varying centers of gravity. the plane was piloted by lieutenant commander Mike lithgow and the plane had 7 occupants. At 10:17 am the plane took off from wisely, they had 5 stall tests to carry out and after takeoff they turned to the west and the plane started to climb to 17000 feet as wisely radar tracked the plane.

The crew worked fast by 10:35 am the crew had already completed 4 stalls with the gear and flaps up. At 17,000 feet the pilots extended the flaps to 8 degrees for the next test. Two minutes after last contact with ATC the pilots started to put the plane into a stall. A familiar buffeting came over the airplane as the stall got closer and closer. But that was expected, in any other flight this would have been cause for concern but this was a test flight and this was normal.

Over the english countryside the BAC111 dropped as the stall took hold. Soon it was time for them to get out of the stall. The elevators responded initially but to the pilots horror the elevators stopped responding. They needed to drop the nose of the jet to get out of the stall. The plane was still in the stall, the pilots were desperate and they were trying everything. As they were trouble shooting the plane banked from to the right and to the left. The pilots pushed the engines to max power in an attempt to power out of the stall but that just pushed the nose of the plane up making the stall worse. The nose came down when they pulled back power. But they were still in the stall and at this point the jet had lost most of its forward momentum and it crashed near the town on chicklade. Eyewitnesses said that the plane was almost flat when it impacted the ground. None of the 7 people on board made it out alive.

The crash had devastated the BAC program, captain mike lithgow had been testing the BAC 111 since its very first test flight. He had been on almost all other testflights in some capacity. To say that he was one of the people who knew the plane the best would not be an understatement. So whatever happened to this 111 was something that even he couldn't foresee.

Going through the wreckage they found the forward emergency doors of the BAC 111. Since this was a testing flightthe crew had been provided with two emergency escape doors and parachutes should something go wrong. The doors were attached to the frame by means of 38 explosive bolts. The pilots had a switch on the center console which would fire the bolts allowing the crew to escape. The wreck showed that the bolts had indeed been fired by the crew prior to impact but apparently there wasnt enough time for anyone to escape from the falling jet. The wreck told them even more. It told them that the pilots were trying to pitch down during the final moments of the flight.