Originally Posted by
Jhieminga
Great to read these stories, but I'm particularly interested in the quote above. It's the first time I've heard of this, does anyone know more about it?
On reflection it must have been 27R (Northern) one afternoon late sixties. I was in the old BEA bonded warehouse under their north-side catering base when the lads tipped us off that something was about to happen. We went outside - silence - then the fire engines appeared and laid a foam carpet right in front of us. Other vehicles, some medical, arrived. No sirens or other movements. It was still very quiet. Nothing in the sky. Word came down that a BOAC Super VC10 on a training flight with crew only was dumping fuel and coming in with nose-wheel retracted. Then we saw it, a distant dot to the east. It landed perfectly just over the threshold and he held it on its main bogies as long as he could while he slowed down, then he gently dropped the nose on to the foam. Neither the nose wheel nor the doors were down or extended. There was a mighty flash and a greenish streak of flame right in front of us but not for long. The nose settled and it was all over very quickly. He kept it straight. Nobody injured, but I can't remember how they towed the aircraft away. It was gone when I want home. I well remember that flash.