The crash of Hastings TG577 at Little Baldon, Oxfordshire
Information kindly supplied by David Rayner on October 20th 2003 (June 2005 David Rayner has recently started his own website page on TG577 so if anyone can help click here
http://www.aaahs.org.uk/crash1965.html )
RAF Handley Page Hastings C1 TG577 crashed at Little Baldon, Oxfordshire at 1600hrs GMT Tuesday 6th July 1965. All 41 passengers and crew on board died. The aircraft was based at RAF Colerne Wiltshire.
An RAF Board of Inquiry was opened at RAF Abingdon to establish the cause of the crash into a barley field of 100 acres at Little Baldon.
Many eye witnesses saw the aircraft in difficulties, which was full of parachutists heading for a drop over Weston-on-the-Green, the pilot radioed that he was in some sort of trouble and apparently avoided missing the nearby village of Berinsfield. The first ambulance arrived from Didcot but the plane was an inferno. There were no survivors, an all night guard was placed around the scene of the crash with many sightseers jamming the local roads.
One lady eyewitness thought the Hastings was performing stunts whilst a male farm worker who had arrived on the scene thought he saw that some soldiers had deployed their parachutes. Apparently Hastings TG577 had landed upside down in the field.
Salvage experts were concentrating on checking the elevator tail bolts connected to the tail plane, the BoI had later determined that the cause of the accident was due to metal fatigue of two of the elevator bolts, this put stress on two more bolts that failed. The Hastings climbed steeply out of control, stalled and crashed into the field. It was trying to return to Abingdon and I understand that a Beverley aircraft was already at the end of the runway preparing to take off, but TG577 couldnt make it back to Abingdon.
This in effect grounded all Hastings aircraft and only a few Hastings carried on in service being replaced by the C130 Hercules. The elevator bolt fatigue was an ongoing problem with this type of aircraft and several Hastings crashed due to this design fault since it first flew in 1946.
An Inquest was held at The Guildhall in Abingdon with a verdict of accidental death, all victims died from multiple injuries, the aircraft was reported as recently being serviced.
At this point in time this was the worst peacetime accident involving any passenger aircraft of the Royal Air Force.
Received from David Barrott on July 3rd 2004:
Reference the crash of TG577. As I recollect, (being in close contact with several RAF and Parachute Regiment personnel at the time) .
Shortly after takeoff the pilot requested a priority landing at RAF Abingdon as he was experiencing some stiffness in the elevator controls. He was asked if he was declaring an emergency and requesting emergency clearance but
declined. Shortly after the aircraft assumed a nose down attitude. The pilot corrected this, but the elevators went hard up and locked there. The aircraft went to near vertical before stalling and dropping to land inverted. The altitude at the commencement of the manoeuvre was approximately
5000'. The First vehicles on site were the ambulance and fire tender from UKAEA Culham Laboratory, who's drivers were subsequently reprimanded for leaving their base without permission although their CO was in Reading at the time. They had reached the crash site cross-country by breaching the
fence of the Culham Naval Stores depot and a bill for replacement of the fence was received within a month.
Added on 4th November 2004 by Ch/Tech Ray Bunce ex RAF Benson via Doug Adams
One specific that I have been provided with some additional comments for are your article
about the Hastings TG577 tragedy in July 1965. Most of the comments serve to complement
or supplement the fuller details already printed. My cousin is Ray Bunce who, as Chief Technician R.A. Bunce, was NCO in charge of the RAF Benson Duty Crew on that fateful evening, and took the call to attend the scene.
The crew travelled to the crash site, a barley field it is reported, travelling in the standard
3 ton Bedfords provided. The crew arrived after about an hour, presumably after the
chaps from Culham mentioned in your main article. The severity of the crash was
already known or generally anticipated as they travelled expecting only to assist in the
recovery of bodies. On arrival at the scene the only recognisable piece of aircraft was the (upside down) tail unit.
Already at the scene, presumably called from his local base or home, was the Inspector
from the CAA who straightforwardly advised that he had no doubt of the cause, fatigue in the
elevator attachment bolts and was looking for these bolts to satisfy himself this was the
case. On finding the two broken parts of one of these bolts, he reassembled it for the crew to
look at, to show how difficult this fatigue was to detect visually. (My own comment but, given all that had been said and documented about these bolts failing in other situations, why had an effective correction not been made before more crashes and fatalities?)