Post #8
"VICTOR CRASH????
Internet extract without any substantiation! True or False?
B(I)8 & Gainsey Ref the 543 Victor, 543 were being presented with their Colours, by, I believe, Princess Anne. Anyway they had a parade on the lazy, where also were lined up their Victors. The culmination of this was to be a rapid start and scramble of one of the said a/c. followed by a flypast. Sod's law came into play and the prime went **** up, the crew, minus I think the Nav Rad, who was to get some pics for the Captain, ran to the standby, started and taxied . He did a wonderful take off (min fuel) airborne well before the intersection and pulled into a tight r.h climbing turn, intending to line up on 27 for a max rate climb, but he was unable to pull onto the centreline due to speed & not letting out far enough so he called going around for another try. He came over us going like the proverbial bat out of hell, and in at least 50 to 60 deg bank, got to the far side of the airfield and the tailplane departed, the rest is history, apart from the fact that I got hauled in to do the first night's guard at the crash site. Incidently, The Daily Mirror was the only paper to get a photo of the take off and initial climbing turn, and it headlined it's next day's edition "Death of a Giant" with said pic on the front page".
Not sure if its the same incident, but i know a Victor came down near Wyton back in 75 i think, after disintegrating during a high speed run for some special occasion.
And if i remember correctly Anglia Television were there filming too!
Rob