Viscount Incident at Liverpool Speke

Slight update to this story after a recent chat with an ex eagle/cambrian engineer. The siezed mainwheel brake might have been the official explanation but was NOT the actual reason. 😉

Jon

Well, don’t keep us in suspense, then.

Hi
I was NOT in the least bit interested in Cambrian Viscounts going into the wall or Connies sitting on there ar*** only in the results ( if Any) about the ALIDAIR A/C that hit a GPU ;);)

KenneF wrote

I should write a book …

Ken

Yes please. Put me down for one.
Be lucky
David

Quote: The Viscount hitting the terminal incident would have been the time when British Eagle’s G-AMOE suffered a siezed mainwheel brake while taxying and swung round into a doorway with the proverbial sickening crunch.

Think it was a Cambrian Airways Viscount and I think it was being taxied by the engineers, if it is the same incident.

PS I was there shortly after it happened!

PPS Thread drift but does anyone remember the Connie sitting on its bottom after the fag run from Dublin?

Slight update to this story after a recent chat with an ex eagle/cambrian engineer. The siezed mainwheel brake might have been the official explanation but was NOT the actual reason. 😉

Jon

Hey Moggy C,

90 speke are still going and are now based on woolton road in garston next to the home guard.

If you wanna know any more about them, just get in touch – meanwhile you can always check out our website www.90speke.org.uk

KenneF, Just looked all thro your archive, excellent, some rare pics from the 60’s. Just my cup of tea ! thanks. Keith.

Thanks Keith, it’s been hard work cleaning the old slides up but worth it for the reaction the site is generating. Thanks to you guys the Connie & Viscount photo’s mentioned above have had around 100 ‘hits’ now

Regards
Ken

Thanks Jon, I’ve seen that

Hope to meet you LPL guys sometime this year, looking forward to seing my old friend CF again

Keep up the good works

B Rgds
DC

KenneF, Just looked all thro your archive, excellent, some rare pics from the 60’s. Just my cup of tea ! thanks. Keith.

Hi Ken F, good to know you’re still around. G-ALAL and the “Terminal Viscount” are real memory jerkers.
Enjoyed your site and pics, and wonder if by any chance you might have pic of Eagle Auster G-APCY during it’s visit to LPL for check.
Best Wishes
DC

Not sure if you have stumbled across this yet?

http://www.britisheagle.net/G-APCY.htm

Jon

Hello DC,

Sadly no! Never saw the Auster. I think I was away somewhere when it came in.

Thanks for the comment re my photo archive website

Regards
Ken

Hi Ken F, good to know you’re still around. G-ALAL and the “Terminal Viscount” are real memory jerkers.
Enjoyed your site and pics, and wonder if by any chance you might have pic of Eagle Auster G-APCY during it’s visit to LPL for check.
Best Wishes
DC

Not the same Ken Fielding from British Eagle Traffic surely?

Edited due mis-ident with Cambrian Traffic!

Yes, the same Ken Fielding… didn’t realise I was that (in)famous !!

Just thought I’d let you know the story on the G-ALAL Ace Freighters Connie incident. It was carrying cigarettes from BFS to LPL during the dock strike and had made several runs already. It was being handled by British Eagle and I met it on arrival. The area of the ramp where it was parked, just west of gate 2, has a fairly sharp upward slope towards the terminal and when it stopped and they cut the engines the nosewheel lifted off the ground about 6″ and slowly settled back again. The four flightdeck crew got off (Capt, F/O, F/E & Loadmaster)at the front and a few minutes later six burly loaders got on at the back to start offloading the cargo. The sudden change in weight distribution from front to back, combined with upward slope, took the c-of-g aft and it fell on it’s tail with a satisfying crunch. The Connie had around an 8,000kg payload and according to the loadsheet it was right on the maximum. The manifest said the boxes of ciggy cartons weighed 8kg, but when we check-weighed them they were actually 11kg. So not only was the aircraft 3,000kg overweight, it was also dangerously out of trim (we always had to be fairly ‘creative’ when trimming them with a full load). The Connie, like the DC-4 and DC-6 were nose heavy when empty but very tail heavy when fully loaded. G-ALAL carried three or four 50 gallon drums strapped to the rear bulkhead which had to be filled with water ballast for ferry flights. Fortunately there wasn’t much damage as it fell backwards fairly slowly. One of the external radio aerial cables snapped and the bottom of the tail fins were crumpled. Ace flew up some spares and a couple on engineers and it was back off to BFS later the same afternoon.

I should write a book …

Ken

Have looked again at my earlier picture post, and noticed all the guys in dark suits have both of their hands firmly planted in their pockets ! why ? Is this a Liverpool thing ?

Keeping their hands on their wheelspanners :diablo: :diablo: :diablo:

Roger Smith

KN – one of those was me, standard pose for those days !

Jon H – I was there 1966-8

Re the Connie, having offloaded some of the ciggies, they put an air bag under the rear fuse to get it back on it’s legs
and as an afterthought inflated a bag under the front fuse to catch it. The radio aerials between the top fuse and tail were somewhat slack, but the only damage was the fairing under one of the tail fins. A Dove flew in a replacement, which was fitted, and off the Connie went. Those were the days, and (IMHO)they didn’t really seem much safer than todays total over regulation
DC

Well assuming they are the same guys that still practice on the old apron Moggy C 🙂 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3wBYs7Nc0w

Jon

Have looked again at my earlier picture post, and noticed all the guys in dark suits have both of their hands firmly planted in their pockets ! why ? Is this a Liverpool thing ?

What happened to 90 (Speke) Squadron ATC?

We used to be based behind the T2 that you can see in the posted Connie shot.

Moggy

Glad to see everyone using the Airports proper name, perhaps it is a sign of my age, but I dislike re-naming long standing airports after pop stars, footballers and the like!

WF

I couldn’t agree more.

Fancy renamiong a once proud airport after some drunkun footballer or an uncouth pop star! One must respect the dignity of the airport!

Yup Hangar 1 & 2 plus the apron (where we play 🙂 ) were all part of the preservation order.

This should help give a better idea of whats left (picture is about 2 years old but doesnt affect things). http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=liverpool+airport&ie=UTF8&ll=53.347259,-2.879705&spn=0.005713,0.014462&t=h&z=16&om=1

Jon

Cheers muchly.
Is there to be a “Fly in” for the celebrations in June?

Hi The incident I am asking about was def/an ALIDAIR VISCOUNT and it was in the Late 70s or Early 80s, the GPU involved was being driven by a member of Servisair and the then Manager of Serviceair was Jerry ??? , damaged A?C was towed into the old Cambrian (No 3 I think) by the old POLICE OFFICE: thats all I remember.