Andysvideo: www.andysvideo.com
Viscount Image: Ken Fielding
Concorde Image:Eduard Marmet

This is the story of British world Airways flight 4272. On the 25th of february 1994 a British world Airways Vickers viscount was on its way from Edinbrugh turnhouse airport to the coventry baginton airport. The Vickers viscount was a special airplane. It entered service in 1953 and it was the world's first turboprop airplane. The turboprop was way better than the piston engines of the time. The turboprop was more powerful, it flew quieter and it was cheaper to operate. Britain was at the top of their airplane building game during the mid 20th century. I mean they innovated like crazy with the brabazon, the viscount, the comet and the trident. If you want to see a video about the british aviation industry of the 20th century do let me know!

Flight 4272 was usually dispatched at 7:30 pm but on the 25th they expected the weather to get a bit worse, so thet decided to move the departure up by about 50 minutes.

The weather for the day predicted a fair bit of drizzle and clouds between 600 and 16000 feet. They knew that the clouds would have perfect conditions that were just right for icing. With the plane fueled up with 1080 imperial gallons or 4900 litres of fuel the plane was ready to go!
The plane took off at 6:43 pm with the captain at the controls. As the weather was less than ideal the crew had turned on anti ice for all the 4 engines and for the key areas of the airframe. As the plane climbed through the clouds to its cruising altitude of 19000 feet, the crew got an overheat warning. The Deicing duct on the right wing was overheating. It was well above the recommended 165 degrees celsius or 329 degrees fahrenheit. The power unit deicing system on engine number two was drawing about 16 amperes of electrical power instead of the normal 20.
It was 7:13 pm the crew was concerned about icing, the pilots double checked the deicing system and it was working just as intended. Seven minutes later the first officer observed ice on engine number 4 but he wasnt too concerned as the ice seemed to be shedding.

At 7:32 pm as the plane approached 15000 feet in altitude engine number 2 failed and the props auto feathered. You see for the blades on a turboprop to generate thrust, it must be at a right angle to the oncoming air, this way the blades can really bite into the air. However if the engine were to fail, the blades in this right angle configuration would generate a lot of drag so these engines are designed to auto feather that is to turn the blades in such a way that they’re parallel to the oncoming air, this means that the failed engine is not generating too much drag.
After having completed the shutdown drills for engine number 2, engine number 3 started to run down. The captain realizing the severity of the issue said “get an immediate descent, Declare an emergency” The first officer transmitted “Manchester manchester this is british world 4272 Weve just had a double engine failure due ice request immediate descent please and radar vectors”

At this point the plane was 16 nm from manchester airport. At 14000 feet.Manchester control allowed the plane to descend 5000 feet. Soon afterward manchester handed the plane off to birmingham. At 7:38 pm as the plane descended through 8400 feet engine number 4 failed as well.