in fact thinking about it hasn't there been at least one case where the basket and hose departed company with no assistance from a receiver...
wiggy I can confirm that. In 6 years on tankers I can recall only one incident when a complete hose parted company with the tanker and as sod's law would have it it was over land.
It happened at night when our squadron's only 2 point Victor tanker was practising AAR with Gutersloh Lightnings on the RAFG towline, which was completely over land. The 2 pointers didnt have a rear view periscope, so when the nav radar trailed the hose he was unable to do the normal visual check. One of the Lightning guys reported that there was no hose trailed on his side. The sortie was abandoned and when they got back to Marham the crew chief immediately confirmed that the hose wasn't still in the pod.
A couple of nervous days ensued, as visions of a 60 foot hose scything through the streets of a German town weren't comforting, but eventually a report came in that it had turned up in some allotments on the outskirts of Bremen. There were no casualties other than perhaps a few squashed cabbages, and I dont remember there being any comeback after the incident.
As Beagle said there was an overland towline down over Devon and Cornwall (Towline 7 I think) but it was rarely used in my time.