Pelican 16 Down in Southern Sahara

[Vfrpilotpb]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/Vfrpilotpb/Pelican16DownintheSouthenSaharaseemaps229.jpg

This photo was given to me in the early nineties by the man who was responsible for getting this flight together , sadly however due to the bad condition of the translation units between the contra props the flight was doomed and finished up in the sand, if the picture is clear enough you will be able to make out the marks in the sand showing the massive sideways slide that was involved, with the exception of a few bruises and cuts all the pax and crew were rescued. The figure 19 can be seen etched in red personnel life preservers to indicate 19 souls alive!

This picture was taken by the crew of the french operated NATO backed Maritime SAR A/c which found the crash site on the late afternoon the day after the actual incident, as the crew were in a war zone rescue was difficult because of the uncertainty of the warring factions, happily they were all collected from the hostile environment within 40 hours of comming down.

I thought one or two of you may like to see this picture !

Peter R-B
Vfrpilotpb

[BEagle]

I've had the full details of this trip explained to me by the ever-genial Hertog Bloch (crew navigator) - they couldn't believe it when the second engine problem doomed the a/c....

Well done, guys. I guess the desert has now taken Pelican?

[jabberwok]

Didn't this flight appear on a documentary recently? I'm convinced I saw it - camera footage from the flight and a night forced landing go through my mind..

[Vfrpilotpb]

Jabber,
Yes you are right it was a night forced landing, the pilot had no idea what the state of the terrain surface was like, apart from the surface "looked flat enough" but they had no option, with two Griffons shut down on one wing and a set of huge props that wouldn't feather the drag was bringing them down in ever decreasing circles so they had to land, I seem to remember they elected to land with the gear up so as to slide hopefully to a halt, however at the point of touchdown they saw small rocky hummocks of desert type material which slewed them sideways when they hit, that impact broke the back of the Shackleton and ripped one engine from the wing and started to force said engine underthe A/c, the slide was very ruogh and thats how many of them recieved their slight injuries, Ex SAAF "Potty" Potgieter(hope that spelt right) recieved a nasty bump to his forehead but after all went silent they all wer able to evac the A/c in good time, running well away for fuel was leaking from a myriad of broken and sheared pipes.

The reason I know so much about this is these people came to visit me to hopefully purchase many spares from me for their remianing Shacks , after we had done a nice deal and shaken on the deal it seemed the S African Gov depts would not release money to pay for such an excersise due to Nelson Mandella wanting all available funds to re-house most of the disposesed in S Africa.

Somewher I have a copy of their route map at the point of the first Pan call, if I can find it I will post it along with the top picture.

Peter R-B

[pmills575]

There is an excellent Video/DVD of this epic voyage produced by a SA company. It includes interviews with the crew and footage taken on-board Pelican 16. For anyone even slightly interested it is worth every penny! Title:- The Death of pelican 16 and can be found in the UK from a number of sources. Failing that the URL address of the original source is www.shortfinals.co.za

[Gainesy]

The Pelican 16 documentary is shown quite regularly (every few months or so) on Discovery channel. It covers not just the final flight but the uphill struggle to restore the Shack, test flying etc. V good and lots of interesting interviews.

[Vfrpilotpb]

Copy of actual map taken from A/c by " Potty" I hope its clear!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/Vfrpilotpb/Pelican16Copyofflightplanmap231.jpg




Vfr

[Kolibear]

There was a documentary 'recently' about a crash in the Sahara, but it was on a terrestrial channel. The a/c involved was a sheduled passenger flight in the 1950s (?) The documentary featured some of the pax & crew returning to the crash site to see if there was anything left of the aircraft.

And at this point my memory has run out......

[Golf Charlie Charlie]

8 crew on the Hermes ? Was that normal for a Hermes ?

http://www.aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19520526-0

[jabberwok]

I mentioned this topic at the airport today and someone told me the documentary was on Discovery Wings two nights ago :ugh: :ugh:

No doubt it will come back again..

jb

[BikerMark]

8 crew on a Hermes?

It's possible.

Not sure of the exact numbers, but 1940s & 50s BOAC long haul flights did have large crews. 2 pilots, flight engineer, navigator and wireless operator. Not much automation in those days!

When you add 2 or 3 stewards and stewardesses, the numbers do mount up.

Mark