Aircraft landing at wrong airfield (1960)
Re: Pan Am 707 landing at wrong airfield - RAF Northolt 1960
As a young National Serviceman (ATC Assistant), I was on duty with a Senior Controller at RAF Northolt ATC Tower on the afternoon in question (can’t remember the date but late summer / early autumn!). It was a glorious sunny day, clear blue cloudless skies but very quiet (air movements-wise) at Northolt. To relieve temporary boredom, I spent much time observing (binoculars) to our right, the periodic, air traffic (some miles distant) on visual approaches to Heathrow. This always involved the pilot’s predictable clockwise left hand turn around the same distant gas storage tower, eventually taking the a/c well away and to the right of RAF Northolt. However, my attention was suddenly drawn to a 707 which had only partially completed the turn to Heathrow and then continued its approach towards us in the direction of Northolt. I observed this for several secs ( I couldn’t believe the pilot would not v. soon rapidly bear right for Heathrow) before drawing the controller’s attention to a possible impending ‘issue’. The 707 continued to gradually lose height on its final approach which appeared to line up directly with Northolt’s main runway. Our controller frantically tried to make contact with the a/c’s pilot but on this occasion, for whatever strange technical reasons, this was totally unsuccessful; we did just catch part of the pilot’s R/T call to Heathrow confirming he was about to land. In effect, things happened so rapidly that we could only ‘spectate’ from the Tower. We were highly concerned that a major disaster was looming as no a/c of that size and weight had ever attempted a Northolt landing on what would be considered an inappropriate runway. The a/c touched down and ended up at the far end of the runway, avoiding rolling into the hedge at the far end! Interestingly, during the Northolt descent, on-board regular passengers were loudly emphasising to (oblivious) cabin staff that they were certainly not about to land at Heathrow as stated by the a/c’s pilot. Eventually, passengers and luggage were unloaded and bussed over to Heathrow and customs etc. While this was ongoing, I received a call in the Tower from a Washington-based USAF General who just wanted me to confirm an unbelievable story that a fully loaded 707 had actually landed at RAF Northolt. News of the error had obviously travelled fast as we were soon inundated with several dozens of USAF servicemen (from the local Ruislip base) all carrying their cameras to record the after event and any attempted takeoff. My understanding was that the a/c’s crew were immediately flown back to the USA for an official inquiry while another experienced Pan Am pilot would arrive at RAF Northolt within the hour to experiment with possibilities for take-off to Heathrow. A rumour from the USAF contingent was that the pilot of the 707 was making his first ever trip into Heathrow while his colleagues were taking a nap. I have no idea whether this was a true assessment of the situation. Rumours were also doing the rounds concerning dis-assembly of the a/c and its subsequent removal in pieces from RAF Northolt. Eventually, a Pan Am pilot arrived on the scene while the 707 was stripped of anything considered to be an unnecessary weight (I don’t remember whether seats were also removed!). During the course of an hour, from line-up point, the pilot taxied the 707 the runway at various speeds on numerous occasions. Then, late afternoon / early evening, the 707’s engines were throttled up for some 10 minutes or so to the extent the whole base was vibrating. Eventually, with take-off clearance from us, the a/c rocketed forward with incredible acceleration and at just around the runway’s halfway point, the wheels were lifting from the tarmac by a foot or two, at which point the pilot put the a/c into such a steep angle climb, we were worried the tail-end tip of the fuselage might strike the runway! Quite an interesting ATC duty day in the Tower!