HMS Eagle 1953 and 809 squadron

Are there any remnants of this Sea Hornet in Iceland or was it burned?
Is there a picture to share with the forum?

*According to the official paperwork, the aircraft had an engine failure after take off. When trying to jettison the long range fuel tanks, only one fell off. In addition the RAFLO report said “landed Keflavik without further damage”. I have in my possession a photograph of the aircraft at it´s final resting place where, lo and behold, both drop tanks are in place AND the prop visible in the picture has damage to one blade that might have been caused by by a taxiing accident with the engines at very low power.
The presence of both drop tanks is a mystery, as they would certainly NOT have been available on stock at Keflavik. To me that would indicate that the second drop tank was transported over there to fly the aircraft back. Unless, of course, there is not a word correct in the history of the aircraft, and it landed with both tanks still attached. What do you think?

Hi Galdri,
Having seen the photo of this aircraft you refer too, I see that only 1 of the prop blades is actually damaged (the one closest to the ground). If this photo was taken after it had been towed across town, I think it likely that this blade was damaged during towing, as it is bent backwards. A blade bent while the engine is turning would bend forwards.

Thanks Paul, for taking the time to double check!
Yes, this all adds to the confusion 😡
Seems like the entries for the aircraft OR the carrier are wrong! The official Royal Naval Movements diary would presumably be based on the ships logs??? If it is, then we can only come to the conclusion that the aircraft´s entries are wrong. Since I know a bit about the history of the airframe in Iceland, it would appear that it landed in Iceland with an injector malfunction that caused one engine to be shut down. During it´s stay in Iceland, I have reason to believe that the RN intended to repair it and fly it out but some incident happened that made it uneconomical to do so.

Now comes the next question to the knowledgeable guys on here. Does this sound like a likely scenario: Aircraft lands in Keflavik without any real damage, only probable injector problems. Aircraft otherwise undamaged. A working party is sent out to repair it, but something happens on ground runs* that will require a lot of extra work which is considered uneconomical. No one, by now, remembers when exactly when the engine failure happened so the end date of the aircraft is recorded as the date Eagle left port. In the opinion of guys having studied records like these, is this a viable explanation??

But there is more to it than this. Through a valued contributor to this forum I´ve got the transcript of the message from RAFLO Keflavik, and in his words, it APPEARS dated 1.st of September. Is it possible that the date of the message was tampered with to make it fit with scenario described above to keep the books in order?

*According to the official paperwork, the aircraft had an engine failure after take off. When trying to jettison the long range fuel tanks, only one fell off. In addition the RAFLO report said “landed Keflavik without further damage”. I have in my possession a photograph of the aircraft at it´s final resting place where, lo and behold, both drop tanks are in place AND the prop visible in the picture has damage to one blade that might have been caused by by a taxiing accident with the engines at very low power.
The presence of both drop tanks is a mystery, as they would certainly NOT have been available on stock at Keflavik. To me that would indicate that the second drop tank was transported over there to fly the aircraft back. Unless, of course, there is not a word correct in the history of the aircraft, and it landed with both tanks still attached. What do you think?

I can confirm the details in Alan Key’s post no.5 above. The official Royal Naval Movements diary shows the following:

‘HMS EAGLE from 6/7 wharfs Devonport to Plymouth Sound and sea – 1050 hours, Tuesday 1 September 1953’.

The diary records that she returned to Plymouth Sound at 0800 hours on Tuesday 1 December 1953 and proceeded up to 5/6 wharfs at Devonport at 1230 hours on the same day.

Sorry if this adds to the confusion.

Regards….Paul

The plot thickens!

According to the history of the airframe, it flew off Eagle on the 1st of september 1953 and further I´ve got a copy of a message from the RAFLO Keflavik to the Admiralty apparently dated on the first of September 1953 concerning the aircraft. In that message it is stated it flew off Eagle “off the Icelandic coast”

Something is wrong here!
Edited to add: According to information gathered from US. archives, Exercise MARINER started off the Icelandic coast on the 6th of September with the participation of three aircraft carriers. Might be duff info??

Thanks for taking the time Alan, I appreciate it.

Regards,
Sigurjon

According to Neil McCart’s ‘HMS Eagle 1942 – 1978’, Eagle left Devonport at 11am on the 1st September 1953 bound for northern waters via the Irish Sea. The squadrons landed on the carrier on 2nd September in the Irish Sea before Eagle joined up with Vanguard and other ships off the North East coast of Scotland on the 6th September. Exercise ‘Mariner’ began in the Denmark Strait on the 22nd September. The Hornet incident is not mentioned in th book as far as I can tell.

Hope that helps

Thanks Lee,
I´ve already got what I believe is all the available material on the aircraft even if it is a bit thin on the ground! What I would ideally like to find out is the whereabouts of Eagle on that day. Off the Icelandic coast is a pretty vague description :confused:

If you’re wanting to identify the Sea Hornet, it was VW959 (‘489/J’) which has starboard engine failure and landed at Keflavik on 1 September 1953. After removal of the AI radar equipment the airframe was left where it was; the work/cost involved in repatriating it was deemed to be incompatible with the remaining in-service life of the type.

Just giving this a gentle bump! Does anyone know something?