Prior to kick-off at today’s match there was be a minute of reflection for that grave day when what should have been a joyous return flight from Dublin to Llandow, with the 78 Welsh fans celebrating a Triple Crown victory over Ireland in Belfast, turned into disaster within spiting distance of their final destination.
No fewer than 80 people died in the wreckage of the AVRO-TUDOR V plane after it crashed into a farmer’s field in Sigginstone. WRU archivist Peter Owens outlined what happened on that fateful day earlier in the week as the union marked the 75th anniversary
“Most welsh fans were celebrating and unfortunately those celebrations were darkened by the tragic accident at Llandow. Well, it wasn’t exactly at the Llandow airfield because the plane came down 60 yards short explained Owens.
“It was the very early days of air travel to matches because up until then most fans heading to Ireland had taken the ferry. At £10 per ticket fans could go from Llandow to Collinstown Aerodrome in Dublin and then went up to Belfast by train.
“Llandow was in existence as an airfield for WW2. It was being used at the beginning of the fifties as a dumping ground for old aircraft. It did take some commercial flights, but it was an unusual place to fly from.
“There was a committee of enquiry after the event but they came to no firm conclusion. The thought was that the plane was overloaded. In the days before it took off for Dublin the seating capacity was increased by six seats because of the demand to travel.
“At Llandow, they had no ability to weigh the luggage they were taking on and it was suspected the flight was overweight, particularly coming back. It travelled into the airfield very low and made an attempt to lift itself above the hedges, but in doing so the tip of the wing hit the ground.
“The plane dropped to the floor in a farmer’s field in Sigginstone, which is about 60-70 yards from the airfield itself. Strangely, there was no explosion or fire and the aircraft just disintegrated on landing.
“The three people who survived included Handel Rodgers from Llanelli, who went on to become President of the WRU. He and his brother in law couldn’t find their seats when they got on the aircraft and took two seats at the back of the aircraft.
“By that happy chance they survived when others died. There seemed to be more protection at the back of the aircraft than the front. The other survivor, who spent some time in hospital, was Mel Thomas, of Llanharan, who was in the toilet at the time when the plane hit the ground.
“Those people who sadly died in the disaster are not forgotten by the Welsh rugby community. It did take a shine off the win in Ireland, but a few weeks later before the Wales v France Grand Slam match a bugler played the Last Post.”
Five years ago there was a special match involving players from three of the clubs who lost members in the crash – Abercarn, Risca and Llanharan. It was played at the Welfare Ground, in Newbridge, when a Llandow XV faced Monmouthshire County in what turned out to be one of the last games played before the lockdown period during Covid.
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 Llanharan crest also 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.
The crash, which at the time was the world’s worst in the history of civil aviation, happened just 60 yards from the outskirts of the Llandow (Glamorgan) aerodrome which was used for civil flights long before facilities were developed at Rhoose 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 – Brinley, Ivor and Williams – were lost in the crash. Roy Winstone also perished and he later had his wish of having his ashes spread over Abertillery Park – “so I can be there for every match” – carried out a week after his funeral.
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 Sigginstonee; there are plaques at both Llanharan and Abercarn clubhouses;
Nantpennar Working Men’s Club also has a tribute to the Abercarn boys.Handel Rogers and Gwyn Anthony were the brothers-in-law from Llanelli who survived the crash. 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.
Long may we remember the victims, all those they left behind and all those who tried to help them.
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, and that’s how I survived. I was badly injured and 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.
“I simply couldn’t 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.”
Listen to our WRU Podcast with Peter Owens ‘remembering Llandow’ here.
