The Plane That Fell Apart Over Kent | Meopham Air Disaster

On 21 July 1930, a Junkers F.13 passenger aircraft disappeared into cloud above Meopham, Kent. Seconds later, pieces of the aeroplane began falling across the countryside. The Meopham Air Disaster remains one of the most extraordinary accidents in early British aviation history. Junkers F.13 G-AAZK was travelling from Berck in France to Croydon when it broke apart in mid-air, killing all six people aboard. But what caused an apparently serviceable passenger aircraft to suddenly disintegrate? In this documentary, I follow the original 1930 Air Ministry investigation across the Meopham countryside, using the official accident report and its remarkable wreckage map to retrace the debris trail. Investigators painstakingly recorded where individual pieces of G-AAZK landed. Parts of the passenger cabin, sections of the elevator and tailplane, an entire wing, the main wreckage and even the engine were scattered across roughly a mile and a half of Kent. By identifying the mysterious letters marked on the original map, we can discover exactly what fell at each location — and begin reconstructing the final seconds of the aircraft. The investigation eventually involved structural examinations, meteorological evidence, experimental debris drops and wind-tunnel testing as experts considered engine failure, structural defects, pilot actions, turbulence, flutter and a little-understood phenomenon known as tail buffeting. Nearly a century later, I take the original report back to Meopham and attempt to follow the evidence for myself. ► You can help support me and the channel by giving a little each month: Patreon/Tom Macklaw 🔗   / tommacklaw   Sources: The principal source for this documentary is the official Air Ministry report and its associated technical appendices into the accident to Junkers F.13 G-AAZK at Meopham on 21 July 1930. Where the evidence is uncertain or the investigators themselves could not reach a definite conclusion, this is reflected in the video. If you enjoy detailed documentaries about forgotten disasters, aviation accidents, railway disasters and British history, consider subscribing for more. #Meopham #AirCrash #AviationHistory