Amusing Javelin story

Originally posted by LesB
Mike

Ref your tale of the run-off Jav. If it was the incident I’m thinking of it was a 3 Sqn Javelin, XA640, on 8 April 1960. Attached is a (poor) photocopy of the local paper report at the time.

If I knew where to get hold of him again I’d love to e-mail him that. I think it would stir a few memories

** REMOVED BY WM **

Mike

Ref your tale of the run-off Jav. If it was the incident I’m thinking of it was a 3 Sqn Javelin, XA640, on 8 April 1960. Attached is a (poor) photocopy of the local paper report at the time.

At last, a story I actually watched! 😀

I was at Geilenkirchen on 3 Sqn (Canberra B(I)8s) at the time. Our hangar and pan was next to the Javelin mob – 11 Sqn – with the other Javelin mob – 5 Sqn – further up the camp.

I was out on 3 Sqn’s line the day the Jav toasted and well remember that the screeching roar of their usual start-up seemed to be going on much longer than usual. Such things were not uncommon with the Javs so we expected to see the 11 Sqn blokes rushing around with CO2 and damping small fires with their berets – as you do :rolleyes:

This time though, it got out of control. Our line chiefy (and others) rushed out to see and we were told to get our Hannomag tractor and Landrover down to 11 Sqd sharpish to assit dragging other Javs and ground equipment (oxy bottle trolleys, air bottle trolleys, etc) out of danger. There was about 50ft of grass area between 3 and 11’s pans so the Hannomag driver elected to drive over that; the Landrover was out at our B(I)8s though with an oxy-trolley attached. We unhitched our oxy-trolly and five or six of us jumped in the Rover and set off for 11 Sqn. As we were out on the pan it was easier for us to drive down via the peri-track though. When we got there the 11 Sqn blokes were pretty much doing a great containment job and directed our Rover to their oxy-trolley. The rest of us mucked in moving blanks, covers, and stuff out of the way. The Jav was well away by now but the Fire Section had arrived and was containing it. Lots of purposeful rushing around – there was a “plan” for such events – until the crisis was suddenly over.

Took about 10 or 15 minutes as I recall. The stricken Jav (with training Firestreaks attached) was a sight to see. But I do recall the pilot and another ground-crew bloke kneeling by the prone nav right next to the burning Jav until the Landrover ambulance arrived. I always thought the nav had broken his leg and passed out from the pain, but there you go, it was nearly 40 years ago. Did hear afterwards though that the pilot (said Wingco) had put in the F700, “Flight aborted due to stater fire and associated damage.” The story cited at the link reads better though. 😉

An exciting morning that was. And our Hannomag? Our tractor driver had forgotten about the deep drainage ditch between the two pans. We all got back to our line to see our tractor unattended and nose deep in this ditch. Took us about an hour to get it out using a doubled length of chain and both of the squadron’s Mageirus Duetz 3-tonners. Got well b0l0cked for that, as we did when MT went ape about the burned canvas top on our Landrover. :rolleyes:

Nice! Geilenkirchen’s runway threshold is some 100 metres away from the Dutch border (it’s about 500 metres at Laarbruch and a stunning two kilometres at Bruggen), so he did plow through the dirt for quite a bit.

I happen to know a chap who was a jav pilot and this is the story he told me:
I don’t know if any of you know it but apparently the jave was notorious for brake failures. The other point to note is that the boundary of the arrival airfield is right on the Dutch/German border.

The Squadron he was with were posted from UK to RAFG. The aircraft he flew out was fine taking off from their base in UK but when he landed at Geilenkirchen his brakes failed. When he reported to the tower he asked them to verify his arrival time for the purpose of completing his log book and was told 1300 in Germany 1301 in Holland!

LOL:D 😀 😀 😀 hope the nav recovered ok though

LOL…………:D 😀