had a very near miss with a high gasometer (at Brentford?) whilst on the approach to Northolt or LHR. It was in the news at the time (early 1960's?).
Having read the AAIB Report mentioned in my post above it is clear my memory is at fault and mistook the near-miss of to the church steeple at Harrow-on-the-Hill church for a near-miss to a Gasometer. And it took place in January 1970.
The AAIB report remarks on how close the IAF Connie was to the ground - 77ft above the church steeple!
In the event the GCA controller noticed, as the aircraft came into the coverage of his precision display, that it was apparently low on the approach whereupon he took the correct immediate action in instructing the pilot to climb as soon as he had confirmed by R/T that the aircraft was indeed very low. This action may well have prevented a serious accident occurring in a heavily populated area. There was no acknowledgement from the aircraft of the first instruction to climb to 1,350 feet. Some 23 seconds later, during which time the aircraft would have travelled nearly a mile towards the high ground, the GCA controller repeated his urgent instruction to “climb immediately” adding the instruction to make a left hand orbit and continue the climb to 1,500 feet.
With the aircraft 500 feet above Northolt a detailed analysis of the area showed that the aircraft would have been 77 feet above the Harrow-on-the-Hill church spire and 200 feet above the general terrain. Nevertheless, for this stage of the approach the aircraft was far too low.