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!
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