Dan-Air Flight 1903

Dan Air Services Limited

Company type	Airline
Industry	Aviation
Founded	1953
Fate	Continued operation after 1970 crash
Headquarters	London , United Kingdom
Products	Passenger air transport, charter flights

Template:Infobox aircraft occurrence Dan-Air Flight 1903 was a non-scheduled international passenger flight operated by Dan Air Services Limited on behalf of British tour operator Clarksons Holidays. The service transported holidaymakers booked on an all-inclusive package holiday from Manchester to Barcelona.

On the 3rd of July, 1970, the flight’s de Havilland Comet 4 aircraft collided with the forested slopes of the Montseny Massif near Arbúcies in the Province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. This tragic event destroyed the plane and caused the loss of all 112 individuals aboard. It stands as the deadliest aviation accident of that year and remains the most fatal incident involving a De Havilland Comet.

This crash marked Dan-Air’s first fatal event involving paying passengers. The news broke during the airline’s eighteenth year of operation, coinciding closely with a significant contract award: just two days earlier, British tour operator Global Holidays had contracted Dan-Air for a four-year agreement worth £2.5 million to operate all charter flights from Birmingham Airport starting April 1971.

Accident

Flight 1903 departed from Manchester Airport at 16:08 local time but experienced delays due to air traffic control restrictions near Paris, which led to an altered routing. At 17:53 local time, communication was established with Barcelona Area Control Centre (ACC), which authorised descent from Flight Level (FL) 220 to FL090. Six minutes afterward, control was transferred to Barcelona approach control. The crew confirmed that Runway 25 was active at Barcelona Airport and were instructed to overfly the Sabadell non-directional beacon (NDB), located approximately 14 miles (23 km) north of Barcelona VOR, descending further to FL060. This clearance required a left turn onto a heading near 140 degrees to align with the extended centreline of Runway 25 at around 12 miles (19 km) distance.

During execution of this left turn, the crew mistakenly reported having passed the Sabadell NDB; however, they were actually still about 28 nautical miles (52 km; 32 mi) north of Sabadell, flying over the mountainous Montseny range where elevations exceed 5,600 feet (1,700 m). Concurrently, air traffic control believed another aircraft was passing over Sabadell at that moment and erroneously attributed that radar return to the Dan-Air flight. Consequently, the controller failed to detect the navigational error made by Flight 1903’s crew. Despite this assumption, there is no conclusive evidence that another plane passed over Sabadell at that time, rendering the controller’s claim questionable. Due to insufficient contrary evidence, ATC cleared the crew to continue descending to an altitude of 2,800 feet (850 m).

At roughly 18:05 local time, Flight 1903 impacted a cluster of beech trees on the northeastern slopes of Les Agudes peak at an elevation near 3,800 feet (1,200 m). Weather conditions at Les Agudes included partial cloud cover below 2,500 feet (760 m) with good visibility beneath. The forceful collision resulted in an immediate explosion that obliterated the aircraft and caused instant fatalities for everyone aboard. The crash site lay approximately 23 miles (37 km) from Sabadell on a bearing of 45 degrees, within mountainous terrain reaching heights up to 5,100 feet (1,600 m). After an extensive overnight search covering a broad area, rescue teams accessed the location the following day. Spanish authorities mandated prompt burial of victims due to public health concerns.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved in the incident was a de Havilland DH 106 Comet series 4, registered as G-APDN with the manufacturer’s serial number 6415. Initially flown in 1959, this plane was operated by Dan Air Services Ltd at the time of the accident. Dan-Air had purchased the aircraft from its original operator, British Overseas Airways Corporation, in 1969. By the date of the crash, the aircraft had accumulated a total flight time of 25,786 hours.

Cause

The investigation concluded that the accident was caused by a combination of inaccurate information regarding en-route reporting points and confusion caused by a radar echo from another airplane that passed over the Sabadell NDB simultaneously with the Dan-Air crew’s incorrect report of having passed it. This situation led to an unintended error involving both air traffic control and the flight crew, which remained unresolved until the air traffic controller recognized that his instructions were based on a mutual misunderstanding. This misunderstanding originated from a navigational mistake by the crew that went unnoticed during flight.

In popular culture

In 2021, Catalonia’s public broadcaster, the Catalan Media Corporation, released a freely accessible documentary titled Montseny, la tragèdia enterrada (Montseny, the Buried Tragedy). The film references the hasty burial of those who perished in the crash. It features interviews with relatives of some English victims and includes the discovery and return of a diary belonging to one of the deceased passengers to her family.

External links

• Aviation Safety Network
• 2021 Catalan documentary about the crash
• "Navigation Error Cited" Flight International, 3 September 1970, p. 332
• Holiday jet disappears over Spain BBC News: On This Day, 3 July 1970