XH498
Thanks all for your inputs - the author (James Hamilton-Paterson) wrote,
'As Vulcan XH 498 was landing in NZ in October 1959, wind shear caused it to break its port u/c leg on touchdown. The pilot went round again for a successful crash landing. During the circuit the crew in the rear compartment came forward and inserted the safety pins into the two pilots ejector seats, announcing that either they would all get out together or nobody would. They all survived unscathed.'
The brief biographical notes make no mention of any aviation experience of the author.
I seem to remember that my Flt Cdr at South Cerney '65/6, a Rhodesian named Mike Smith, was allegedly the first Vulcan captain to successfully evacuate the whole crew. IIRC this happened near Valley on return from a Goose trip.
OD - those figures you gave are staggering, I know for instance that out of 262 Valettas supplied to the Air Ministry, 73 were w/o in flying accidents. I guess for the early jets (vampire,venom,meteor, canberra etc) the attrition rate would have been extremely high.
As I've mentioned before on another thread, I saw the flash as the No3 Herc in our formation hit the sea - very sobering.
Back to the unsobering bottle, cheers Brian Wildey