Charming thread!
I don't think you'll mind me resurrecting it with a question...
Was it fairly normal for night take-offs to be accompanied by long flames shooting out of all four engine tail pipes?
With occasional bangs and "back-firing"?
I ask because I booked a passenger flight on a VC-10 from Muscat to Colombo in 1980, and friends tried to dissuade me from taking the flight because of the pyrotechnic display the aircraft was noted for in Oman.
Sure enough, "my" take-off was as noisy and dramatic as usual, but we survived!
Mine must have been one of the final trips by the VC-10 on that route?