29th June 1994

[TonyR]

The Prince of Wales made many visits to Islay along with other members of the Royal Family over the years but the most memorable one was on 29th June 1994.

On a visit to one of his favourite Islay Distilleries he managed to crash the Royal Jet on one of the runways. Luckily no one was hurt and the Prince lived to tell the story. The plane however stayed on Islay for some considerable time to allow it to be repaired. Quite an exciting time for all at the airport and indeed the whole island.

Just wondering if anyone thought of a fly in to Islay this year, perhaps we could ask HRH

Where have the years gone, have a look (http://www.hial.co.uk/islay-history.html)

[Flyin'Dutch']

From that link:

The airport has had many visitors over the years and included may well known and famous faces. Probably our most recent famous visitor is HRH The Prince of Wales.

Recent? 10 years? Must be living at a different pace up there!

:D

FD

[david viewing]

crash the Royal Jet on one of the runways

We took the Warrior to Islay in 2000 and it was still the mainstay of conversation in the tower then. I'm sure I remember the word 'downwind' being mentioned...

Interestingly, Shawbury have the event immortalised in their ATC simulator where the Royal Jet can crash and burn at will.

[J.A.F.O.]

Can't make the fly-in, still too busy laughing at the original incident. I was living in the Highlands at the time and, of course, a great deal of sympathy was expressed over Islay malts that night.

Could happen to the best of us but so much more fun when it happens to someone else.

Are you going to write to HRH to invite him?

[whatunion]

under the circumsatnces wouldnt it be more fitting to have a 'crash in' than a fly in!

[BEXIL160]

Crash on a runway

Did he not run off the end of the runway having attempted a downwind landing?

A real dilema for the chap in the RHS I imagine. At 150ft with the speed and aeroplane a bit on the high side it how do you say to HRH "GO AROUND SIR, NOW!" Or even "I HAVE CONTROL"?

Don't suppose Royals do CRM courses? But then, can anyone tell me if the Military do either? I imagine they have even more need for it given the Rank structures in place vs. Pilot Flying / not Flying a multi crew flight deck.

Rgds
BEX

[J.A.F.O.]

The military do indeed do CRM training but I imagine that the cockpit gradient is rather steep when the handling pilot is an Air Commodore (as, I think, he was at the time) whose mother owns the aircraft, the flying club that you fly for, oh yes, and the country you're flying in.

[Genghis the Engineer]

I believe that the expression is "I have control Sire".

Seriously, I remember reading the official report shortly afterwards, and the Captain of the aircraft hadn't really given HRH much opportunity to do the job properly (mind you HRH didn't ask the right questions either) nobody came out of it particularly well.

G

[TonyR]

Islay is only a very short hop for us and we used to go over for a coffee and to see how they were getting on with the repairs,

It was on the Island for a couple of months after the "crash"

[Warped Factor]

I thought 29th June was only memorable 'cause it was my birthday :p

[Keef]

Not 1994 though, WF? ;)

[BEagle]

The words 'up' and 'cock' were certainly appropriate on the day £millions of damage were caused to that particular corgi-carrier.

All one had to do was to stick one's head out of one's window and one's big flappy ears would have assisted deceleration - until G/S equalled tailwind at least. Then head back inside to avoid one's ears acting as sails!