On This Day: 80 Welsh rugby fans die in what was world’s worst plane disaster

MARCH 12, 1950: 80 people died when a plane, chartered by Welsh rugby fans, crashed in what was then the worst ever air disaster on this day in 1950.

The Avro Tudor V, which was returning from an international game in Ireland, plummeted to the ground during its approach to Llandow aerodrome, south Wales.

The crash, caused by an extra load of passengers shifting the plane’s centre of gravity, virtually wiped out the teams of three small rugby clubs from the Rhondda Valley.

A British Pathé newsreel shows wreckage from the Llandow air disaster covering a field in Sigingstone in the Vale of Glamorgan.

The disaster was especially tragic because it had come at a time of joy for Wales after they had beaten Ireland 6-3 in Dublin to win the Triple Crown.

They went on to claim the Grand Slam after winning all four games in the 1950 Five Nations Championship.

But the country’s success on the field was overshadowed by the pain reverberating through its rugby heartland.

‘I lost seven mates, seven friends in that crash,’ said Melfyn Thomas, one of only three survivors among the 83 on board the plane.

The former colliery fitter, who played for Llanharan RFC at the time, owes his life to the fact he was in the tail section, which is usually the safest part of a plane.

‘I was in the toilet of the plane when it happened, and that's how I survived,’ he told the BBC in 2010.

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‘But I was badly injured. I spent four months in hospital at St Athan. I had a fractured nose, jaw, my neck was bad, and cracked my skull.

‘The doctors were also worried about my sight.

‘But to be honest, I simply can't remember anything that happened in the crash, I was unconscious.

‘I remember getting on the plane out and I can remember landing in Dublin.

‘I can remember a lady who was working on the flight when she took the steps up, telling me that this was the biggest plane to land at the airfield.

‘But the accident itself - I can't remember a thing.’

The four-engine propeller plane, which served in the Berlin Airlifts and had been converted for civilian use, was seen coming in at low altitude and unusual angle.

It pulled up almost vertically, stalling and then crashed to the ground, coming to rest just feet from homes in Sigginstone.

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All five crew members were killed along with 75 of the passengers, most of whom were members of either Abercarn, Risca or Llanharan rugby clubs.

As well as Mr Thomas, the only other survivors were Handel Rogers, who went on to become President of the Welsh Rugby Union, and his brother-in-law Gwyn Anthony.

King George VI sent a message to the grieving families within two days of the crash, and the government launched a public inquiry into the disaster.

It found that the plane's centre of gravity had dangerously shifted because six extra seats had been fitted on the plane by charter operator Airflight.

But the plane's owners were only fined £50, and ordered to pay £100 in costs, after a court ruled that the company had breached its air-worthiness certificate.

At the time, the crash had been deadliest in aviation history.

The death toll was eclipsed only a decade later in the 1960 New York mid-air collision, when 128 people on two planes and six on the ground were killed.

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The deadliest crash in aviation history was the 1977 Tenerife disaster when 583 people died when a Boeing 747 hit another jet on the island’s runway.

The Llandow air disaster is still marked by the rugby clubs that lost players and supporters.

Abercarn’s badge has a propeller on it in memory of the crash – as well as Prince of Wales feathers to mark the Prince of Wales colliery explosion that killed 268 local men 1878.

A black cross was added to the Llanharan club badge and a plaque stands at Risca RFC to remember its loss.