1961 Holtaheia Vickers Viking crash

The 1961 Holtaheia Vickers Viking crash (Holtaheia-ulykken) was a controlled flight into terrain incident on 9 August 1961 at Holta in Strand, Norway. The Eagle Airways (later, British Eagle) Vickers 610 Viking 3B Lord Rodney was en route from London Heathrow to Stavanger Airport, Sola on an AIR Tours charter flight taking a school group for a camping holiday. The aircraft was making an instrument landing when it crashed 54 km north east of Stavanger. All 39 people on board died.

Crash
The Viking left London Heathrow at 13:29 on what was an estimated two and a half-hour charter flight. Between 16:24 and 16:30 it crashed 18 nmi north-east of the airport on to Holteheia, a steep mountainside at an elevation of 1600 ft. The crash site was 30 ft below the summit.

The aircraft was destroyed and an intense fuel and oil fire followed the impact. The search for the aircraft included an RAF Shackleton and Royal Norwegian Navy ships investigating the fjords in the area. The wreckage was found fifteen hours after the crash by a Royal Norwegian Air Force helicopter, 15 mi east from the ILS track.

Passengers
The 36 passengers were a school class of boys aged 13 to 16 and two teachers from Lanfranc Secondary Modern School for Boys. It was at the time the deadliest aviation incident in Norway.

Aircraft
The aircraft was a twin piston-engined Vickers 610 Viking 3B serial number 152 and registered in the United Kingdom as G-AHPM. It first flew on 2 January 1947 and was delivered new to British European Airways.

Investigation
The report into the crash put the cause down to "a deviation from the prescribed flight path for reasons unknown".

Aftermath
33 of the boys and one teacher were buried together at a communal grave at Mitcham Road Cemetery in Croydon on 17 August 1961.

Ewan MacColl wrote a song, "The Young Birds", about the accident.