1970's damaged DC-8 at MAN

How on Earth this didn’t end in tragedy has me stumped!!!

And according to that report, the Intercontinental DC-8 first flew in 1964, so we’ll need to change the thread title…;)

It was a very close call indeed. There were 2 hangars directly in the path of the Intercontintal aircraft but luckily they were in a dip & he managed to arrest his descent just in time!

try this…http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19820905-0

How on Earth this didn’t end in tragedy has me stumped!!!

Sorry I don’t want to hijack this thread therefore left my reply for a number of days,. The mention of Manchester airport and seeing the pier brings back good memories.
Yep Starliner from memory was published on a photocopying machine each month. It listed all the movements and trip reports. I remember Gresty and there was an older guy as well who always accompanied him? I went by the name of “Turkey” and was chuffed to find on one occassion that I was credited in the publication for providing “movement details!” Great anorak days which I miss! My ultimate moment in time was landing at Manchester on a Spantax CV-990, if only I can relive my youth again! Long live the days of the Aviogenex TU-134’s with glass nose cones and Tarom Il-18s whch were regular visitors!

…I occasionally went by the name RahRah and persuaded Malc to give me an out of sequence membership number….2112.

Ah! Anything to do with the Priests of the Temples of Syrinx, by any chance?

I certainly remember Malc Gresty… and his pipe!

Does any one remember the spotters club “Starliner?” had a monthly publication and organised spotting trips to LTN, LHR and STN etc,what great memories!

Yes I do!
I lived up the street from Mal Gresty (MALC). The trips set off from Chorlton St Bus station about 2300 fri or sat.
I occasionally went by the name RahRah and persuaded Malc to give me an out of sequence membership number….2112.

Newforest, having now unearthed some notebooks from that era you are quite right there were indeed 3 DC8s. I can remember one Sunday operation involving 2 of the Caravelles to Lagos and Kano whereby the passengers travelled on one aircraft with the baggage and small amount of cargo travelling on the other. Both a/c tech stopped at LEPA en route…aw happy days:D

I think that they had 2 DC8s at one time.

Actually three DC-8’s, 5N-AVR, 5N-AVS and 5N-AVY as well as three Caravelles, 5N-AVO, 5N-AVP and 5N-AVQ.

HP81, great to see those images and thanks for posting them. Such a long time ago now but I am glad those FT guys are still around. I shall always remember the Intercontinental engineer whose name was Peter, a Nigerian who always seemed to have one arm in a sling or in plaster, that airline was a strange operation all round and I think that they had 2 DC8s at one time.

The damage to N786FT.

I found this pic among my slides of 5N-AVY at Stansted in March 1984, presumably awaiting its appointment with the breakers.

Does any one remember the spotters club “Starliner”?

Indeed I do. Do you remember “Nortripair” and Andy Maynard?

Interesting pics, I have a photo of the Tigers DC8 at stn, with tyre marks on the fin & a big hole!
I now work with one of the Flying Tigers engineers who was attending the flight, he & his colleague were knocked over in the cockpit, the other guy cut his head on the f/e’s table.
Some time later whilst investigating a fuel leak on 5N-AVY I found a crack in the r/h undercarriage fitting which resulted in the aircraft being scrapped.
Will try to find the fin picture.

On the Sunday morning in question I was employed by Servisair as a Traffic Officer in my early 20s at Stansted and arrived for the start of my day shift at 0600. I was asked by my Duty Officer if I would take our day shift loading staff from what was then the terminal or northside of the airport across to the cargo stands which were located roughly where the terminal sits today southside. The weather was extremely foggy at the time and we also had two Flying Tigers ground engineers join us in the crewbus to hitch a lift to their DC8 63F which we were to handle that day for a livestock departure. And so we departed northside along with a tug which I was to escort to the FT DC8. This meant crossing the runway at its mid point obviously under the control of Stansted Tower, all went well and we all arrived safely on the cargo apron. I picked up the poor old night shift loading staff and as instructed by my D/O began the return journey to the northside again. All was routine until arriving at the mid point runway crossing and calling on R/T for clearance to cross when I was instructed by STN tower to hold position as there was one to land, considering the heavy fog we were all quite surprised and I asked tower to repeat last message and there was indeed the Intercontinental DC8 on approach. I wound down the Transit window and could just hear the distant jet sound from the RWY23 direction, viz was really bad as the jet sound got louder. We heard the tower give the DC8 its final wx details and clearance to land, suddenly the engine sound increased dramatically and at the same time there was a very loud thud from our left hand side followed shortly afterwards by the aircraft passing not overhead us but behind and seemingly to the left of the runway…the loudest jet sound that I had ever heard followed immediately by what sounded like pieces of light metal falling around us although we could not see anything around our immediate position and we did not see the offending DC8 at any time, we had no idea then that the thud we had heard was the landing DC8 striking the FT DC8 taking approx the top third of the fin off of the aircraft. The tower controller asked if we were still in position as he suspected that there had been an incident, I acknowledged that and confirmed that we were still holding at which point we were instructed to return to the cargo area and not to cross the runway. The sight which greeted us on our return to the FT DC8 was not one I shall ever forget, what we did not know at the time was how lucky an escape we had all had. There were tyre marks from the landing DC8 at the top of what was left of the fin on the FT and of course those two FT staff were on their aircraft at the time, one on the flight deck and one in the rear main deck area. The steps at the rear door of the FT aircraft were several feet away from the door sill following the impact but both FT folks were I think thankfully unhurt. I was told later by one of the airport police that they were informed that had the IC DC8 not impacted the FT machine then it would probably have continued its off course decent and landing onto what was then the Mobile Home Park at Takeley on that early Sunday morning. I seem to remember that the IC DC8 landed safely at MAN with some of the flight deck crew allegedly fleeing the a/c after shutting down on the runway. The FT DC8 was eventually repaired at STN after having parts from the fin of an African Safari DC8 fitted, which had been resident at STN for some time, owned by the Fire Service I think, and the aircraft returned Stateside some weeks later. I have never seen these pics before, thanks for posting them. It was quita a day for a “rookie” T/O.

Reminds me of Great spotting days at Manchester when I had a season ticket for the viewing areas on the pier. Shame its all changed now due to increased security measures. Does any one remember the spotters club “Starliner?” had a monthly publication and organised spotting trips to LTN, LHR and STN etc,what great memories!

Don’t know much about this DC-8 except it’s broke!! It had clipped something on landing at Stanstead and diverted to MAN. The story goes the crew lept out of it and did a runner!

The aircraft eventually got to Stansted and was scrapped there 8/84 as 5N-AVY.

5th September 1982…..the clue is in DavidS’s link :diablo:;)

CKing wrote…

f you say you remember the 70’s you weren’t there, right?

Yeah i do know what you mean!! lol:diablo:

27 minutes!!!! You lot are good! The guy whose photo’s they are says he knew nothing about the incident at all. Now for the pilots inside leg measurement……
1970’s, 1980’s they all meld into one when you get to my age. Besides if you say you remember the 70’s you weren’t there, right?:)

Rgds Cking

One left wrote….

Although your title says 1970’s, Orion only operated from 1980 to 1989.

One left the heading says 1970’s DC-8 damaged,not that it was in 1970!:D