I was on the late shift in ATC as an assistant at the time of this accident. The aeroplane left Marham with I think four crew and I knew the Captain Flt Lt Ted Gallienne and the Co Pilot Flt.Lt Roger Morton quite well.
Roger might have been a Flying Officer but makes no difference. Before remustering to Aircrew, I spent about 30 or so trips - when ever there was a spare seat on the radar or on the 6th seat to give me some sort of idea about what I was letting myself in for. On a previous trip I had a 6th seat ride with Flt.Lt Gallienne which was an Astro Navex and I spent quite a time sitting in the door on my PSP .
The next trip (I think it was a TTF trip) the door blew open and they lost a few bits and peices such as Nav Bags.
On the evening in August, I was in Approach Control and talking to my counterpart in Midland along the lines of this aeroplane had just called for taxy and would be a handover in the next 5 to 10 mins and he in turn alerted his controller to get ready. We had Decca AR1 radar at Marham which had rainplates fitted but I don't know how ATC Marham fared compared with North Luffenham's or Watton's type 82 re the weather to the north and east. The aeroplane rolled from rw 24 , and turned right towards the NE and the last thing the controller in Marham (Flt Lt Dower) said was "Contact Midland on Stud xx" to which Flt Lt Gallienne acknowledged the instruction.
I was also duty driver in the tower and all the other guys were already in the Land Rover ready to go over to the Airmens Mess for Supper. As we passed 24 threshold and reached the Burmah Road the sky lit up bright orange and I had a rough idea what caused it so I turned the rover around and returned to the tower, simultaneously contacting Crash 1, 5, and 6 (also en route to supper)to return to their section. The local controller in ATC also then came on the Pye radio and gave similar instructions to mine.
When I got back into Approach Control I reminded Flt.Lt. Dower, who was extremely busy fielding questions on our switchboard, to ask Ground Radio to change the MARS (voice) tapes and impound the active tapes but I think J/T called Geoff had it all sorted.
I cannot remember if all the fire section went to Holt or not, but it meant Marham was no longer active with no fire cover. I remember fielding questions from the Norfolk Fire services but in all honesty, initially we were totally in the dark about the incident until it became clearer that Eastern had also lost a Canberra which was climbing out of Wainfleet. I think the Canberra had three crew.
One thing the 'on duty' controller told me to do was ring my home and tell my parents I was not involved as the Co Pilot and me shared the same surname.
(sometimes our mail used to get mixed up if there was no rank on the envelope)
The whole station was totally stunned and recall a lot of people were immediately sent to Holt from both Marham and West Raynham.
Those are my recollections of that night.
I'm not sure blame was apportioned to the controllers on duty that night but it all seems so long ago now.
I left Marham shortly after, and was posted to AE and AES Topcliffe.
Last edited by 5aday; 7th Nov 2014 at 17:35.