Southampton Airport Crash - Miracle on the M27

On 26th May 1993 an aircraft was inbound to Southampton (Eastleigh) Airport awaiting permission to land after a short flight from Oxford, so early that the airport had not even opened when the plane took off. The 12 year old Cessna 550 Citation II executive jet had seating for 9 people but today carried no passengers, just the pilot and co-pilot making the regular scheduled commute between the two airports. 

Following a rainy night, the runway was now wet and carried a large amount of water. Eight passengers were due to board the aircraft for a short flight to Eindhoven and on this morning the airport was actually unaware of their arrival otherwise they would have had to prepare for a very early arrival before the airport officially opened at 0700. 

Chris Rundle was the Air Traffic Controller at Southampton Airport that morning. Carrying out pre-opening checks while the second ATC was getting ready to carry out his airfield inspection in heavy rain, down below the Fire Crew were carrying out their early morning inspections ready for the airport opening. Three years previously he had been involved in an incident that had made headlines when a pilot of a British Airways jet had been sucked out of the cockpit window, Chris being the one to talk the aircraft to a safe landing where they found that miraculously the pilot, Captain Tim Lancaster, had survived the ordeal. But today was his last shift for a couple of weeks as he was getting married at the end of the week so he was looking forward to the wedding and some time off.

Suddenly a call came through from the private jet asking for permission to land early, claiming it had permission from the Operations Department to land before they opened, Chris advised him that the airport was closed and that the weather was terrible, but the pilot insisted on landing on Runway 22. At this point he could not give them permission because firstly the airport was not open which made them unlicenced an secondly it was not safe to do so. He said that he was attempting to land on a very wet runway with a  15 knot tailwind, the pilot acknowledged and made his approach.

The heavy thunderstorm was making visibility difficult, but the wheels touched down on the runway, the aircraft was now suddenly out of control and refusing to stop. The end of the runway was getting closer and the pilots frantically tried to reduce speed but nothing could be done.

The nose of the Cessna 500 smashed through the barriers and plunged down an embankment and onto the M27, spinning 180 degrees and finally coming to a stop in the central barrier, crashing into two vehicles along the way. The aircraft began leaking fuel onto the motorway and to the horror of those who could see it, the plane then burst into flames.

Chris Rundle looked on in horror from his position in the tower. “As the aircraft landed it was obvious that it was going too fast and was apparently aquaplaning so as it went off the end of the runway I sounded the crash alarm and luckily the Fire Crew responded immediately, one vehicle heading for the end of the runway, the other heading for the motorway slip road to get to the aircraft where they found that the crew had evacuated the aircraft and commenced firefighting long before the Eastleigh Crew arrived.”

Incredibly there were no deaths. The two pilots managed to get out and the emergency services were on scene to deal with the crash. Like a well-oiled machine, the motorway lanes were closed, traffic diverted and wreckage removed. The official Air Accidents Investigation Branch report a year later announced that the cause of the crash was blamed on the pilot landing with a tail wind that was outside the limits of what should be attempted.

In 2021 this incident appeared in my book Britain’s Lost Tragedies Uncovered where images of the plane crash taken by passing motorist Martin Cole and an interview with police officer Adrian Walder built up this story and showed that this was one disaster that could have been so much worse if it had been later on in the morning or if the motorway had been crowded with traffic.