Winter Hill air disaster
1958 aviation accident
The Winter Hill air disaster occurred on 27 February 1958, when the Silver City Airways Bristol 170 Freighter G-AICS, operated by Manx Airlines on a charter flight from the Isle of Man to Manchester, England, crashed during heavy snow into Winter Hill (also known as Rivington Moor), 5 miles (8.0 km) southeast of Chorley. Thirty-five people died and seven were injured; the cause was determined to be navigational errors.
Background
The flight was a charter flight from Ronaldsway Airport, Ballasalla, on the Isle of Man, to Manchester Ringway Airport, operated by Manx Airlines with the Silver City Airways Bristol 170 Freighter G-AICS, call sign "Charlie Sierra". It was flying a group mostly consisting of people connected with the motor trade in the Isle of Man to visit the Manchester Exide Battery factory at Clifton Junction and the Manchester car show.
Crash
The aircraft took off from Ronaldsway Airport with a crew of three—captain, first officer and stewardess—and 39 passengers, bound initially for an aircraft reporting point at Squires Gate, near Blackpool. Take-off was delayed by repairs to navigation equipment, and as a result because of other air traffic in the Manchester area, as well as poor weather in England, the captain was ordered to maintain an altitude of 1,500 feet (460 m) rather than climbing to the normal 3,500 feet (1,100 m). After receiving clearance from air traffic control at Manchester Ringway, the flight continued inland to Wigan Beacon, a non-directional beacon in the Manchester Zone, which transmitted a recognition signal of "MYK" in Morse code on a frequency of 316 kHz and a range of c. 25 miles (40 km).
While the captain was briefly absent from the cockpit, the first officer erroneously tuned the radio compass to the frequency for Oldham Beacon instead of Wigan Beacon; visibility was extremely poor and the mistake was first noticed by Manchester Control, who at 9:44 AM ordered an immediate right turn. Shortly afterwards, the aircraft crashed near the summit of Winter Hill, several hundred yards from the Independent Television Authority's Winter Hill transmitting station.
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