ancientaviator....the good old critical engine failure on TO balls up...
BEA in my time belatedly got into charters...in the form of Airtours. My father had been in partnership with a hotel owner during the 60s in Westcliff on sea supplying Channel Airways with in flight meals
(Ham and Colmans mustard sandwiches wrapped in cellophane made up in Eddie Troppers hotel kitchen) ....until dad took a short cut under the wing at Rochford airport and got his bedford van stuck. Channel had started the all inclusive holiday flights in Britain.
BEA bought around 10 surplus American 707s.....they didn't ask for BOACs expertise as they knew better.
A new conversion FO ex vanguards who hadn't flown for a year was given a critical failure which was over done by the training captain and when things started going wrong he throttled back the two engines on the other wing and added thrust on the throttled back engine - it resulted in a smoking mess on the end of the runway at Prestwick....some of the old guys still swear blind that BEA had discovered VMCA which had been missed by Boeing, BOAC and everyone who operated the 707.
Even better they crashed one in Heraklion...bent all pylons including shearing bolts on one and bent the wings...rather than ask BOAC they used their own "expertise" and illegally authorized the return flight - with a hundred odd souls on board.
Aircraft condemned by Boeing.
Fareast driver......interesting .....BOAC was threatened with being banned from Kai Tak after yet another Airtours 707 missed the turn on the checker board approach and nearly skewered a block of flats....the Hong Kong government figured that the Corporations communicated and were similarly professional - both being funded by the British Taxpayer....how wrong they were.
I did a month flying around East Africa on a MD80...always overloaded...as they say when one flies in Africa it is moving countries and they carry their whole life with them.
I took my wife but there were no free jumpseats and her priority was zero but I never had the racist problem and got on well with all and sundry. We were somewhere in the middle of nowhere with the aircraft very over loaded and one of the station staff said "No Problem Sir...get Madame to board last...walk down the aircraft, pick up a small person, sit down and hold small person on her lap for take off - after take off go and sit on one of the stewardesses seats ...do the reverse for landing"
And that's was what madame did....overweight takeoff (tonnes)...avoided the ITCZ which wasn't too active...and we had a couple of great days in Dakar together.
