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On this day in 1950:
12th March 1950: The Llandow Air Crash.
The tragic air crash which took place at Llandow on Sunday 12th March 1950, had until recently the unenviable distinction of being the world's worst air disaster.
The aircraft was approaching runway 28 of the RAF to land. The plane fell sharply to starboard and plunged to the ground, narrowly missing a farm and a couple of young boys playing football.
The starboard wingtip hit first, followed by the nose of the craft and then the port wing that snapped off. The aircraft skewed in a clockwise direction before coming to rest at the edge of a field beside Park Farm at the village of Sigginston near Llandow, approximately 200 yards from the boundary of the RAF Station.
The bulk of the 78 passengers and 5 crew were huddled in a mass in the fore part of the wreckage. Most were still strapped in their seats, which had been ripped away from their moorings by the force of the impact, and piled in a mass among the dead and injured. Incredibly, in the midst of such carnage, two passengers who had not been seriously injured in the crash, climbed out from a gap in the fabric of the aircraft and walked unaided over to Park Farm.
A police Officer at the scene had the presence of mind to create a wide gap in the hedge abutting the roadway allowing easy access to the crash scene by 35 ambulances and 12 firemen in 4 fire appliances. Such quick thinking undoubtedly increased the chances of survival of those who had been seriously injured.
8 passengers were brought out alive by rescuers, but died later, bringing the total dead to 76 passengers and 5 crew.