Lancaster close call 29/1/1954
From a recent Flight International which recalled an incident 50 years ago:
"Lancaster Bunkered" Last Friday, January 22nd (1954) an Avro Lancaster of the M.o.S was force landed on a golf course near Nottingham after suffering a total loss of power while approaching to land at Hucknall. The aircraft which was returning to the Rolls-Royce airfield after a routine instrument testing flight first "lost" its port engines at about 500 feet, followed by those on the starboard side; the pilot, W/C J.H.Heyworth, skillfully put the aircraft down "in the rough", though he hit a tree in the process, suffering an injured hand.
Three Rolls Royce technicians who were on board, J.Dye, M.Costello, and W.D. Edmonson were unhurt.
John Harvey Heywoth is, of course, Rolls-Royce's chief test pilot. he had returned to active flying only a month previously, after spending over three months convalescing from injuries he received in the crash of a Bristol Sycamore helicopter at Farnborough last autumn, in which he was a passenger. He is now rapidly recovering from this latest incident and hopes to resume active flying shortly".
Can anyone suggest how I can obtain more specific details of the Lancaster incident? Certainly there is evidence of several Lancaster accidents in those days caused by sudden stopping of all engines. I experienced an incident personally in an RAAF Lincoln where all four propellers feathered at once from the pushing of only one feathering button. Fortunately this happened on the tarmac so there was no great drama.