Valiant XD869
I was posted to 214 Squadron straight from trade training in February 1959 as an AC1 ‘rigger’ and I remember the XD869 incident vividly.
The day before XD869 was due to fly a Lone Ranger to Entebbe, I and Henry (Paddy) Milne, another rigger, were told to report to Chief Tech ‘Johnny’ Johnson for a job on XD869. Having reported we were told that there was an urgent job to do involving the replacement of the port inner flap. This was surprising because this was usually regarded as 2nd line servicing and so would normally be carried out in the hangar and not on the dispersal pans.
Paddy Milne and myself together with Johnny Johnson carried out the work and completed it by mid-afternoon. As far as I am aware no test flight was carried out during the day time, whether one was carried out after normal working hours I have no idea.
I agree with ‘GIGFY’s’ message that XD869’s crew chief was Chief Tech Partridge, (not Chief Tech Jarvis) a fairly sombre character. It’s correct that he had just gone down with a heavy cold and had asked Bob Sewell if he would take his place.
In the middle of that night I was awoken by the roar of aircraft engines. This was unusual because there was often night flying at Marham and it had never woken me before, other than for the first few weeks after I had arrived. I briefly checked my watch and saw that it was around 03:00. Realising that this must be XD869 preparing for take-off, I lay there and listened as the engine power increased prior and during take-off. A short time after this, certainly no more than a minute, there was a sudden and abrupt silence, I immediately sat bolt upright, totally confused by this silence. This was followed by a loud explosion and shaking of the accommodation block.
The station photographer was accommodated in our room of 22 men and within minutes of the crash an RAF police corporal burst into the room shouting for the station photographer. By this time of course everyone was awake and I for one never got any more sleep that night. Constantly worrying whether there was anything that we had done with the port inner flap that might have contributed to the crash.
That week I was on key duty for the squadron dispersal buildings and I needed to be up at around 06:00 to collect the keys from the guardroom and open up the squadron dispersal buildings. At that period, the squadron dispersal area was located not far from the bomb dump about half a mile away from No 1 hangar. Having collected the keys, I made my way up to 214 dispersal, passing No 1 hangar on the way. I noticed lots of activity around a small building alongside the hangar, a building that I had never noticed before, it was the station mortuary.
Crossing the long stretch of grass between the hangar and 214 dispersal, the September mists were swirling, one minute quite dense, then almost clear. As I grew closer to the dispersal area, the mist cleared momentarily and there standing outside the buildings on a small rise was the ghostly outline of Chief Tech Bob Sewell’s, cream coloured Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire. He was quite proud of this car and had bought it, I believe, from the actor Jon Pertwee. It remained there all day and was a constant reminder to all of us of the recent tragedy. I remember that Chief Tech Partridge was beside himself because of the situation and couldn’t speak to anybody.
The date of the crash was Friday, September the 11th 1959, all weekend leave was then cancelled in order to get all those men not on duty to form a large slow sweep of the land. This was from the end of the main runway to just short of the point of impact, a distance of around 2Km. Nothing of interest was found.
As far as remember the BOI never really settled on the definitive cause of the accident, only a suggestion that it might have involved the TPI. No one that I spoke to at the time could provide any explanation as to the reason for the abrupt silence of the aircraft engines that I had appeared to witness. By this time I was wide awake and I doubt whether I could have been imagining it.