Jhieminga
VC10 low fuel diversion to Bedford, Mass.
There was an account of this incident in the BOAC flight safety publication, c.1970. If anyone by chance has any copies of old BOAC material in their attic, or if the BA historical collection has a copy, you would be able to read the original report. Unlikely of course so I will describe it from memory, with the usual caveat about the accuracy of recall over a period of forty years. If there is anyone reading this with a more accurate recall or was closer to the event, then please feel free to correct me.
The scheduled destination of the flight was New York, but bad weather at JFK meant there were lengthy landing delays. After a period of holding the decision was made to divert to Boston. The BOS weather was also deteriorating but this was not reflected in the ATIS broadcast, so the crew were unaware of the developing situation.. The first attempt was a non-precision approach (VOR/DME I would guess) and resulted in a go around.
They then attempted an automatic ILS using the autoland system. Whether it was intended to complete a full autoland I do not know, but in any event there was a system failure which resulted in a second go around.
Then a manual ILS was flown but the weather had deteriorated to the point where nothing was seen, resulting in another go around.
The fuel situation had now become critical and at this point ATC offered the military airfield at Bedford. This was only 12nms (approx) from BOS and was VMC, so the flight was able to land without difficulty. Usable fuel remaining, about 15 minutes.
Long after the event I was in conversation with a cabin crew member who had been on that flight, who claimed that the captain had considered ditching close to the coast. I suspect this was not a formal briefing to the cabin crew, more likely an unguarded remark after the event. It was not mentioned in the safety review report so I am inclined to doubt its significance. But it does serve to highlight how marginal the operation had become as a result of a combination of unforeseen circumstances