Grenville/Robbreid: Thank you very much for these wonderful photos and the video link!
This is such an amazing story and I confess to having played through my mind what it must have been like for Reuben to line-up his craft with the gallops and set her down on the grass! The whole thing seems a little surreal!
That he pulled it off without incurring any damage and flew out some weeks later on a newly-built runway just adds to what was an already amazing story - no wonder Grumman made a fuss over him!
At the bottom of page 1 of this thread you can read about the 'Beggar' (VR-BEG) a private B737-259 that I had some involvement with in 1980/81 when my godfather was personal pilot to Ireland's leading race horse trainer .. Vincent O'Brien. So, Ireland, horses and the early 80's are very much a part of my background and which makes it all the more astonishing that I had never heard of this incident! So again, thanks to Robbreid for 'flagging up' this truly nostalgic bird!
Does anyone know anything more about XA-FOU (who she was owned by) or about the heroic Reuben Ocana and what happened to him?