View source for Iberia Flight 062

{{Short description|Aviation accident in 1967}}
{{Distinguish|Iberia Flight 602}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2014}}
{{Infobox aircraft occurrence
| name            = Iberia Flight 062
| image           = Iberia Caravelle Fitzgerald.jpg
| caption         = An Iberia Sud Aviation Caravelle similar to the accident aircraft
| Date            = 4 November 1967
| Type            = Controlled flight into terrain for undetermined reasons
| Coordinates     = {{coord|51|03|06|N|0|41|26|W|display=inline,title|region:GB_type:event}}
| occurrence_type = Accident
| Site            = Near [[Blackdown, West Sussex|Blackdown Hill]], United Kingdom
| Fatalities      = 37
| Injuries        = 
| aircraft_type   = [[Sud Aviation Caravelle]]
| aircraft_name   = ''Jesús Guridi''
| Operator        = [[Iberia (airline)|Iberia]]
| callsign        = IBERIA 062
| tail_number     = EC-BDD
| occupants       = 37
| Passengers      = 30
| Crew            = 7
| alt             = 
| missing         = 
| survivors       = 0
| origin          = [[Málaga Airport]], Spain
| stopover        = 
| stopover0       = 
| last_stopover   = 
| destination     = [[Heathrow Airport|London Heathrow Airport]], UK
| image_upright   = 
}}
'''Iberia Flight 062''' was a twin-engined [[Sud Aviation Caravelle]] registered ''EC-BDD'' operating a scheduled flight from [[Málaga Airport]], Spain, to [[London Heathrow Airport]]. While on approach to Heathrow on 4 November 1967, the Caravelle descended far below the flight level assigned to it and flew into the southern slope of [[Blackdown, West Sussex|Blackdown Hill]] in West Sussex, killing all 37 on board.<ref name="asn">{{ASN accident|id=19671104-1}}</ref>

==Crash sequence==
The time of the accident was approximately 10:02&nbsp;pm,<ref name="flight749">{{Cite web |date=9 November 1967 |title=CARAVELLE 10,000FT TOO LOW |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1967/1967%20-%202154.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120926170706/http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1967/1967%20-%202154.html |archive-date=2012-09-26 |access-date=2009-09-02 |website=Flight International |page=749}}</ref> about 5½ minutes after the plane had been cleared to descend from [[flight level|FL]]110 (11000&nbsp;ft) to FL60 (6000&nbsp;ft).<ref name="flight264"/> Flying at a shallow rate of descent, the Caravelle first clipped trees near Black Down House, then broke through a large hedge and careened across a meadow where 65 sheep were killed outright and 23 more were fatally injured.<ref name="society">{{cite web |title=Blackdown air crash |url=http://www.fernhurstsociety.org.uk/caravelle.html |access-date=16 May 2011 |website=Fernhurstsociety.org.uk}}</ref> The disintegrating plane continued on, destroying a garage and damaging parts of the roof of Upper Black Down House.<ref name="asn"/>

Aviation fuel caused small fires to break out in the wooded hillside. Debris from the aircraft was scattered over the whole of the roughly {{convert|355|yards|m ft}} of its passage.<ref name="society"/>

==Investigation==
An investigation could not determine why the aircraft descended through its assigned flight level.<ref name="asn"/> Audio recordings taken from [[air traffic control]] and from the recovered [[cockpit voice recorder]] revealed nothing unusual.<ref name="flight264">{{Cite web |date=1970-08-30 |title=CARAVELLE CRASH REPORT |url=https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1970/1970%20-%201612.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180310074056/https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1970/1970%20-%201612.html |archive-date=2018-03-10 |access-date=2009-09-02 |website=Flight International |page=264}}</ref> The investigation stated that "no evidence was found of any pre-crash failure or defect in either the airframe or the engines, or of any faulty workmanship."<ref name="flight264"/>

The investigation report gave considerable attention to the possibility that the air crew could have misread their "three-pointer" [[altimeter]]s, which were designed to warn the pilots with a cross hatch indicator when the altitude was below 10,000 feet.<ref name="flight264"/> An excerpt from the report stated:

<blockquote>
"The aircraft descended continuously at a steady rate over a period of 13½ minutes and the pointers would have been in continuous motion throughout, increasing the likelihood of misreading. The cross hatching in this type of altimeter first appears in a window in the 10,000ft disc at an indicated altitude of 26,666ft and the edge of the cross hatching would have been visible within 2 minutes of the aircraft beginning its descent. At 10,000ft the cross hatching completely fills the window and it remains filled as long as the aircraft is below 10,000ft. Thus the cross hatching would have been visible to the crew for a period of about 9½ minutes before the aircraft passed through FL60 and it is a matter of conjecture whether it was still an effective warning to them at that stage of the descent.
<br /><br />
"With this type of altimeter it is not difficult to read an indication of 6,000ft as 16,000ft if particular note is not made of the position of the 10,000ft pointer. Evidence against the possibility of simple misreading of this sort is the message from the aircraft to ATC reporting passing FL145, indicating at this time the crew knew that they were below 16,000ft. "<ref name="flight264"/>
</blockquote>

==Victims==
Among the dead was British film and TV actress [[June Thorburn]], who was five months pregnant.

A mass grave and memorial for 19 of the deceased is located {{convert|28|km|mi|abbr=on}} north of the crash site at {{coord|51.30254|N|0.6288|W|format=dms|display=inline|region:GB_dim:300}} in [[Brookwood Cemetery]], [[Brookwood, Surrey]].<ref name="grave">{{cite web |title=Air Crash Fernhurst |url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8231843 |access-date=16 May 2011 |publisher=Find A Grave}}</ref>

The nationality of the 37 casualties are listed below.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Nationality
! Casualties
|-
| United Kingdom
| 25
|-
| Spain
| 9 (inc. 7 crew)
|-
| United States
| 2
|-
| Australia
| 1
|}

==See also==
* [[United Air Lines Flight 389]] – another incident where altimeter misreading is suspected, but not proven

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{Citation
 | last = Partridge
 | first = Ewan
 | publication-date = September 2005
 | year = 2005
 | title = Fernhurst Remembered – Ewan Partridge recalls the tragic accident to an Iberian Airlines Caravelle on a flight to London Heathrow in November 1967.
 | periodical = Aviation News Incorporating Air Pictorial
 | volume = 67
 | issue = 9
 | pages = 691–693
 | issn = 0965-1896
}}
<!-- ISSN above may not work. This page is where it was derived from:
http://runners.ritsumei.ac.jp/cgi-bin/swets/hold-query-e?mode=1&key=&idxno=21186048
-->
* Sussex Constabulary (1967). ''Report on Air Disaster at Blackdown Hill'', Sussex, 4 November 1967 [by] Supt G. Dinley [West Sussex Record Office].
<!--
# "The Night Blackdown Claimed Flight IB06" The Haslemere Herald, 14 November 1977.
-->

==External links==
*[https://asn.flightsafety.org/reports/1967/19671104_S210_EC-BDD.pdf Report on the accident to Caravelle SE-210 EC-BDD at Black Down near Fernhurst Sussex on 4th November 1967 (Civil Aircraft Accident Report C.A.P. 343 EW/C/0192)] – Released by the Board of Trade
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFclJUqsaKw&ab_channel=BritishPath%C3%A9 1967 Newsreel footage of the crash wreckage] from [[Pathé News|British Pathé]] ([https://www.britishpathe.com/video/plane-crash-aka-37-die-in-caravelle-crash/ Record No:44981]) at [[YouTube]]
*[http://www.fernhurstsociety.org.uk/caravelle.html Fernhurst Society page on the crash], includes hand-drawn police map of crash site and newsreel video link
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20180310074056/https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1970/1970%20-%201612.html ''Flight International'', 30 August 1970, p. 264] (PDF) – includes a summary of the Board of Trade crash report
*[https://www.airhistory.net/photo/317664/EC-BDD Photograph of Caravelle EC-BDD] – taken two months before the crash
*[https://www.john-clarke.co.uk/fernhurst.html The Fernhurst Air Disaster: 50 Years On]
*[https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/e51d0b0e-7cd6-4d82-b3a6-a2113751188c Inventory of items in the UK National Archives relating to the crash] – of interest to researchers


{{Aviation accidents and incidents in 1967}}
{{International Airlines Group}}
{{Aviation accidents and incidents in the United Kingdom in the 1960s}}

[[Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in 1967]]
[[Category:Airliner accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain]]
[[Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in England]]
[[Category:Accidents and incidents involving the Sud Aviation Caravelle]]
[[Category:Iberia (airline) accidents and incidents]]
[[Category:Disasters in Sussex]]
[[Category:1967 in England]]
[[Category:Airliner accidents and incidents in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:November 1967 in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:1967 disasters in the United Kingdom]]