First mid-air collision 100 years ago
An airmail aircraft was involved in the first mid-air collision, which occurred on 7 April 1922 over Thieuloy-Saint-Antoine in northern France, 27 km north of Beauvais. Five days after the British Daimler Airways had started scheduled operations with DH.34, the aircraft, registered as G-EAWO, was en route with a mail consignment from London-Croydon to Paris-Le Bourget.
Flying in the opposite direction was an F.60 of the Compagnie des Grands Express Aériens with four passengers. In dense fog at an altitude of 150 m, the pilots operating on visual flight could not avoid the collision. After losing a wing and the tail, the DH.34 crashed first, with the F.60 following a few minutes later. All seven people on board lost their lives.
The accident gave rise to several international regulations. Since then, for example, every aircraft must have radio equipment on board and fly within agreed corridors, which were first established in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and UK. But it was not until the convention on international civil aviation, signed in Chicago in 1944, that the standards commonly used in air traffic control today were established. (ah)