Piers wrote;
The very first Vulcan delivered to RAF provided the
first example of the
front seat crew ejecting, while the rest (+1
civilian passenger!)
perished... at London Heathrow airport of all
places... and (strange to
relate), the Vulcan did not have ILS fitted...
yet the Air Marshal up front
(perfectly normal, no doubt) allegedly
insisted on landing in very poor
weather. RIP three squadron leaders and
one Avro technical advisor.
Memorable for all the wrong
reasons.
Google
XA897.
Piers
......................................
http://www.roadranger.co.nz/2016/02/avro-vulcan-xa897.html
Until
I followed Piers' suggestion and found the above URL, I had no idea
that I had seen the SAME Vulcan crash at Wellington airport, New
Zealand
The photo taken at Ohakea (military airbase) is the clue.
On
the day in question, there was a sales competition between Handley Page
Herald and Fokker Friendship aircraft to determine which was best at
short take-offs and landings. The Fokker won easily.
Next, the Vulcan
was to land.
The runway was really desperately short for this aircraft
and the pilots tried to land exactly at the start of the concrete, just
out of touch of the wet clay that was there.
Twice they pulled away to
try again with a somewhat less conservative landing. Bad move.
On the
third landing the left undercart hit the clay and then the edge of the
concrete.
There was an immediate bellow from all 4 engines and the
Vulcan took off over Wellington Harbour and Hutt Valley to land at
Ohakea about 20 minutes later on a sea of foam. All 70 tons of Vulcan.
it took 6 or 10 months (Forget which) to fix it for the flight home.
I
was a Uni student, and watched it all clearly from a super vantage point
on the hills above and to the west.
Brian
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