Southend Airport's first fatal plane crash over 50 years ago

An 80-seater Viscount plane, belonging to Channel Airways, dramatically came down a few seconds after take off – crashing into a steel hut on the airport compound where three men were working.

The impact destroyed the plane and caused a huge fireball.

Christopher Mundy, a 49-year-old storekeeper of The Drive, Rochford, and Jack Pilgrim, 48, an audit clerk of Arterial Road, Leigh, were killed instantly.

Brave crews - Firemen pictured at the crash site. They worked for hours to quell the flames from the crash and to stop the fire from spreading. (Image: Newsquest)

A third man working in the hut was badly hurt and was rushed to hospital, but he survived.

The plane, which wasn’t carrying any passengers, was on a test flight in order to gain an air-worthiness certificate.

It had just left the runway and was about 100ft in the air when suddenly the starboard wing dipped, hit the ground, and the plane cartwheeled off the runway. It then belly-flopped on some grass, ploughed across the field, and somersaulted before plummeting down on the hut where the three victims were at work.

A group of other men working on a nearby freighter had to run for their lives as the crash occurred. As soon as they could they raced back and tried to pull the victims out of the fire and rubble.

Wreckage - The plane shorty after the tragedy (Image: Newsquest)

The three crew members onboard the Channel Airway plane – a pilot, co-pilot and first officer – were shocked and shaken-up but escaped serious injury.

Harry Trevelyan of Rayleigh was one of the first witnesses on the scene. He saw the pilot staggering out of the cockpit and yelled for him to jump but it was too high. After more yells the dazed pilot did finally jump with Mr Trevelyan breaking his fall with an improvised catch.

The airport fire crew were quick to arrive on the scene and tried to blanket the fire with foam.

Another fire engine came but crews had to connect their hose to a static tank half a mile away which caused a delay. Ambulances also arrived and took away the dead and injured.

Foam - The damaged Viscount plane is doused with foam and water after the crash in a bid to stop its fuel tanks from exploding (Image: Newsquest)

One big concern for firefighters was that a fuel dump containing 100,000 gallons of aviation fuel was located perilously close to the blaze. It was just a few yards away, and fire crews battled to stop the flames from spreading there and ultimately causing a massive explosion.

A forklift driver who saw the crash unfold said: “I’ve never seen anything like it in my life and I never want to again.”

In the aftermath of the tragedy a government-backed investigation into the crash was launched.

The cause was put down to a technical fault due to the failure of engine number four just after take off.

Tragedy - The Vickers Viscount was on a test flight when it came down a few seconds after take-off (Image: Newsquest)

The crash made front page headlines on national papers across the country.

The images in our gallery were all taken by our newspaper photographers at the scene. Our old photo negatives are kindly being re-printed by volunteers at the Rayleigh Town Museum.