Remembering the Llandow Air Disaster

On 12 March, 1950, what was then considered the worst crash in the history of civil aviation occurred when a plane carrying 78 Welsh rugby fans and five crew crashed into a field near Llandow in the Vale of Glamorgan. The plane was packed with supporters fresh from celebrating a 6-3 victory over Ireland in Dublin. Of the 83 people on board, only three survived.

Numbered among the many dead were five members of the Llanharan rugby team, including Henry Pascoe, nephew of former Welsh international forward Dan Pascoe of Bridgend. Seven were women, including the wife of one of the Llanharan players who perished, and the air hostess.

The crash happened just 60 yards from the outskirts of the Llandow (Glamorgan) aerodrome, which was used for civil flights long before facilities were developed at what is now Cardiff Airport.

There were people playing football in the fields alongside the runway as the plane came in. Three of five sons from the Jones family in Abertillery were lost in the crash. Kitty Berris, from Risca, was waiting at the airport with her young son, Don. She was also five months pregnant.

There were 44 police officers and 42 ambulances on site. The local bobby cut a pathway through the hedgerows to allow the emergency service vehicles through. There was an inquiry held in Cardiff into the crash and eventually £80 compensation was paid to the families of the victims.

Nearly half the passengers came from the Western and Eastern Valleys of Monmouthshire. Abercarn RFC were hit hard hit, losing their captain Don Rowlands, coach Ray Box and star centre Doug Burnett, who was the brother of Roy, the Newport and Wales outside half. Another casualty was their kit-man, Albert Robbins.

Burnett’s elder brother, Ivor, was also a member of the club, but he decided not to go on that fateful trip. Skipper Don Rowlands had been an air gunner during the war and spent four years solid flying. He didn’t really want to go but, fatefully, was persuaded to do so.

The trip from the Greenhouse pub in Llantarnam was arranged by Squadron Leader Bill Irving. He had been shot down in North Africa, survived Dunkirk and done two tours flying Lancaster bombers on 63 missions. There is a memorial to him at St Hilda’s Church, Griffithstown; there is now a memorial at the site of the crash in Sigginston; there are plaques at both Llanharan and Abercarn clubhouses; Nantpennar Working Men’s Club also has a tribute to the Abercarn boys.

Two other survivors were Handel Rogers and Gwyn Anthony (both of whom are pictured below, with Anthony seated at Rogers’ bedside). They were brothers-in-law from Llanelli. They were also taken to the Services Hospital at St Athan, where they were given immediate medical assistance.

Rogers, at that time a 33-year-old ship’s chandler, went on to become a great servant of Llanelli rugby club. He was manager of the Welsh tour to New Zealand, Australia and Fiji in 1969 and, in 1975, became president of the Welsh Rugby Union.

The tail and wrecked fuselage of the Avro-Tudor V stood out in sombre silhouette as dawn broke over the crash scene. Air Vice-Marshall Donald ‘Pathfinder’ Bennett, managing-director of Fairflight Ltd, the owners of the plane, was among the first visitors to survey the scene along with accident investigation officers of the Ministry of Civil Aviation. The giant Brabazon aircraft, based at Bristol, flew over the South Wales crash area on the morning after the accident and dipped its massive wings in a salute to those who perished.

It appears from witness accounts that the plane made a normal approach to the runway but the pilot then revved the engines, made a steep climb and another circuit. When it made a second approach, a wing hit the ground and the main fuselage broke up leaving only the tail intact.

Dr Jack Matthews, who had played in the Triple Crown winning side on the Saturday, went straight to the hospital to visit the survivors. “It was very difficult because they didn’t know how many had got out. They showed a lot of courage.”
Wales beat France 21-0 two weeks after the crash to complete their first Grand Slam since 1911 and take the Championship outright for the first time since 1936.

WHAT THE SURVIVORS HAD TO SAY YEARS AFTER THE CRASH

HANDEL ROGERS


“It was a very sad ending to what was a great trip. The price of the trip made it quite an attractive offer. Having done the trip from Liverpool to Belfast on previous occasions it was great going over, but rather tedious coming back. That’s what made our minds up to go by plane. The people of Risca were quick up onto the stage at the hotel in Belfast to start the singing.

“We weren’t allocated places on the plane, we just drifted aboard. The two seats in which we had travelled over were taken so we took the only two seats that were left at the back of the plane.

“It was a normal approach procedure. I could feel the plane was losing height and going in. Everything was absolutely normal right up until the plane shot up at an angle. Gwyn and I immediately took action. We put our heads down very low against the back seats.

“Even years later it was difficult to realise why two of us (I travelled with my brother-in-law Gwyn Anthony) should have been sitting together, both related to one another, and be so fortunate.

“The Llanelli Rotary Club did a tremendous job for our families. Every day our wives were brought along to the hospital. They had a rota. My upbringing in chapel was a great source of support.”

MEL THOMAS

“I can always remember when we landed in Dublin that I was one of the first two to jump off the steps. The air hostess asked ‘what have you got there? It’s the biggest plane that’s ever landed here’.

“It was a great trip until what happened. All I can remember is that I got up to go to the toilet on the plane before it came into land.”

That day has never been forgotten across the Welsh rugby club community. Last year, a special match involving players from three of the clubs who lost members was played at the Welfare Ground in Newbridge: Llandow XV v Monmouthshire County.

Today, the Llanharan crest has a black cross in it to commemorate the six players who lost their lives. The Abercarn club badge now has a propeller on it to denote the tragic loss of its captain, baggage man and another player. The propeller is alongside the Prince of Wales feathers, which commemorates the Prince of Wales mining tragedy years before.

Long may we remember the victims, all those they left behind and all those who tried to help them.

Llandow XV: Ben Pesci (Risca); Ryan Dallimore (Risca), Scott Llewellyn (Abercarn), Jack Davies (Abercarn), Kane Davies (Abercarn), Owen Biddescombe (Risca), Rhys Morgan (Abercarn); Aaron Davies (Abercarn, captain), Louis Tovey (Risca), Brandon Nelson (Llanharan), Ieuan Higgs (Croesyceiliog), Geraint Roberts (Risca), Louis Stansbury (Llanharan), Owen Howe (Llanharan), Callum Coughlin (Risca)
Reps: Ieuan Davies (Risca), Sam Grant (Llanharan), Jake Porter (Abercarn), Matt Britton (Abercarn), Chris Osborne (Llanharan), Paul Winters (Llanharan), Adam Price (Abercarn), Jamie Baker (Abercarn), Greg Baker (Abercarn)