Water landings (First posted after Hudson River forced landing)

Ollie, that would be XR444, ditched,as you say with fuel starvation on 26th June 1972 with 3 crew and eight pax : struck off charge a month later. It subsequently went to the Army Veterinary Centre at Melton Mowbray where it was used to train ‘sniffer dogs’….Regards, Brian S.

Sorry for reanimating this thread…
I’m a bit irritated by looking at these two images dating back to 1986/87 – 14-15 years later!
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?aircraft_genericsearch=&airlinesearch=&countrysearch=&specialsearch=&daterange=&keywords=XR444&range=&sort_order=photo_id+desc&page_limit=15&thumbnails=

You can’t see the serial no – maybe it’s not XR444….???

Martin

Ollie, that would be XR444, ditched,as you say with fuel starvation on 26th June 1972 with 3 crew and eight pax : struck off charge a month later. It subsequently went to the Army Veterinary Centre at Melton Mowbray where it was used to train ‘sniffer dogs’ (I thought all dogs were sniffers?…mine is 😀 ) to find drugs and bombs secreted on aircraft. Might even be a photo of it extant. Regards, Brian S.

I was detailed off to be dogsbody for the Court Martial at Seafield Park for the pilot of XR444. Not the best of jobs to while away a week or so, but I was in the wrong place when I walked past someones office at the wrong time 😉

One of the Imperial War Museum DVD’s, “The RAF at War”, has a “special feature” RAF instructional video on how to ditch on water included.

Makes for some interesting viewing. 🙂

Dinghy Dinghy Dinghy – Prepare for Ditching!!!

I didn’t know that every Halifax bomber was fitted with a pocket battle ship!!! Honest, they are!!!

Regarding recent events in New York, me thinks the pilot was a former Flying Boat captain in a previous life. He, like his passengers might not be sitting on a cloud, but I hope he’s on cloud nine – brilliant piece of flying.

I wonder how many Flight Sim junkies are trying to replicate his flight?

Many thanks Brian for the date, My interest stems from the fact that I was serving with Culdrose Station flight at the time of this incident. It was employed on Round Robin Flights which included Northern Ireland, Speke Roborough,Lee on the Solent, Yeovilton and Prestwick. I worked on this XR444as a visiting aircraft but couldn’t remember if the last time it had dry feet was at Culdrose. In any case there was always concern when an aircraft was lost that was until the BoI had made it’s findings public. Ground crews always get nervous when the A700 gets locked in the squadron safe!

Cheers Ollie, that’s very interesting, but it would appear any suspicion or recrimination on your part would have been dispelled by the subsequent findings, but your concern at the time is wholly understandable! There may be evidence available but I would hesitate and deem it intrusive and maybe insensitive to dig any deeper ; the individual(s) at fault probably paid dearly for their mistake, if finger-trouble it proved to be. I believe there were a couple of injuries in the accident, but luckily no loss of life.

They need training in what to sniff…..crotches and other dog’s bums don’t count 😀

Nice one Bograt! Fortunately my Yorkie can’t reach crotches, and her vertically challenged height has severely limited the other options, thank goodness!:)

Ollie, that would be XR444, ditched,as you say with fuel starvation on 26th June 1972 with 3 crew and eight pax : struck off charge a month later. It subsequently went to the Army Veterinary Centre at Melton Mowbray where it was used to train ‘sniffer dogs’ (I thought all dogs were sniffers?…mine is 😀 ) to find drugs and bombs secreted on aircraft. Might even be a photo of it extant. Regards, Brian S.

Many thanks Brian for the date, My interest stems from the fact that I was serving with Culdrose Station flight at the time of this incident. It was employed on Round Robin Flights which included Northern Ireland, Speke Roborough,Lee on the Solent, Yeovilton and Prestwick. I worked on this XR444as a visiting aircraft but couldn’t remember if the last time it had dry feet was at Culdrose. In any case there was always concern when an aircraft was lost that was until the BoI had made it’s findings public. Ground crews always get nervous when the A700 gets locked in the squadron safe!

A Breguet Atlantic made a ditching off the Mull of Kintyre during a JMC exercise .The crew plus an air traffic assistant friend of mine all got out ok, infact they never got wet, being winched from the wing.

(I thought all dogs were sniffers?…mine is 😀 ) Regards, Brian S.

They need training in what to sniff…..crotches and other dog’s bums don’t count 😀

Water landings

Ollie, that would be XR444, ditched,as you say with fuel starvation on 26th June 1972 with 3 crew and eight pax : struck off charge a month later. It subsequently went to the Army Veterinary Centre at Melton Mowbray where it was used to train ‘sniffer dogs’ (I thought all dogs were sniffers?…mine is 😀 ) to find drugs and bombs secreted on aircraft. Might even be a photo of it extant. Regards, Brian S.

Nimrod R.1 XW666 had to ditch in the Moray Firth on the 16th of May 1995, she suffered a starboard double engine fire, although the fuselage broke in two just aft of the main wings the ditching was textbook and all crew survived.

Regards,

John.

One of the Imperial War Museum DVD’s, “The RAF at War”, has a “special feature” RAF instructional video on how to ditch on water included.

Makes for some interesting viewing. 🙂