On February 29, 1964, the worst aviation accident to date to occur on Austrian soil occurred. A Bristol 175 Britannia Series 312, carrying 75 passengers and eight crew members, crashed into the Glungezer just below the summit and crashed. All people died.

Flight number 802/6 was G-AOVO, operated by British Eagle International Airlines, on its way from London Heathrow to Innsbruck. But the Bristol 175 Britannia Series 312 never arrived there. The Tyrolean airport was to be approached using the so-called visual flight method, because the modern technology that is common today did not exist at the airport, which was then still called an “airfield”.

Visibility is said to have been very poor at the time of the accident. The accident investigation has shown that it was probably a pilot error. These would have flown the aircraft too low for the given weather conditions. The recommended minimum flight altitude was exceeded. It is believed that they made a mistake about the mountains and crashed into the Glungezer at around 2.600 meters.

The report at the time also noted that the pilots may have felt under pressure. Despite the poor weather conditions and the extremely sparse equipment at Innsbruck Airport, which was already considered inadequate at the time, other flights were carried out as planned. Presumably they wanted to avoid trouble with the airline and land in Innsbruck despite poor visibility and possibly misjudged orientation. That was a fatal mistake that cost the lives of 75 passengers and eight crew members.

The US Air Force then carried out search flights at Austria's request. The employees of a mountain hut were also asked to search. Supposedly wreckage was found around the same time. Because the area is difficult to access, it took several weeks until all the bodies could be found and recovered.

The fact that the aviation accident, which is the most serious to have occurred on Austrian soil to date, is almost unknown today is also due to the fact that fatal crashes occurred comparatively frequently in the 1950s and 1960s. Aviation was characterized by an enormous number of accidents and unfortunately, due to the quantity, not every single event is remembered. In any case, the fatal crash in Tyrol had consequences.

As already mentioned: At the time of the accident, Innsbruck Airport, which was then called the “airfield”, was extremely sparse and, even from the perspective of the time, inadequately equipped. After the accident, no larger aircraft flew to Kranebitten for almost 15 years. It was not until 1976 that an instrument approach procedure was introduced and installed. The cloud piercing method was then also introduced. The “airfield” also received many technical improvements such as runway lighting, which was modern at the time, radar monitoring and much more. None of this was available at the time of the accident or in an outdated form.