Dan-Air Flight 240, flying to East Midlands Airport, crashes in Nailstone, Leicestershire. All three crew members perish.

Dan-Air Flight 240 was a fatal accident involving a Hawker Siddeley HS 748 series 2A turboprop aircraft operated by Dan Air Services Limited on the first stage of a night mail flight from London Gatwick Airport to East Midlands Airport. The crash, which occurred on 26 June 1981 near the village of Nailstone, Leicestershire, following major structural failure caused by the failure of a cabin door, resulted in the aircraft's destruction and the deaths of all three on board.

East Midlands Airport is an international airport in Castle Donington, England. The airport is situated between Loughborough, Derby and Nottingham ; Leicester is 20 miles (32 km) to the south and Lincoln 43 miles (69 km) northeast. It serves the majority of the East Midlands region consisting of the counties of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Rutland and Derbyshire. The airfield was originally built as a Royal Air Force station known as RAF Castle Donington in 1943, before being redeveloped as a civilian airport in 1965.

Nailstone is a village and civil parish in the Hinckley and Bosworth district of Leicestershire, England, situated to the west of Leicester and 3 miles (5 km) north-east of Market Bosworth. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 521, reducing slightly to 514 at the 2011 census. The village has a primary school: Dove Bank Primary School the catchment area for which also includes the neighbouring village of Bagworth.

Leicestershire is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warwickshire to the south-west, and Staffordshire to the west. The city of Leicester is the largest settlement and the county town.