Lost VC10

[B9]

Happy New Year. Many years ago I heard a story, possibly apocryphal, of a VC 10 en-route to the Far East that erroneously set of on a North Atlantic route. Some time into the flight the error was pointed out to the crew by a passenger who noticed that the sun was on the 'wrong' side of the aircraft. Can any one shed light on this incident and have there been any similar events in recent years.

[BEagle]

I remember reading about that incident - it was many, many years ago before the advent of MNPS, LORAN C, Omega or GPS. It was on a planned North Atlantic trip and a gross navigator pigs caused a slow but steady change of course until the coast of Greenland, not Newfoundland came into view - they landed somewhere safely but with not much gas remaining. I doubt whether there'll be any folks left in the RAF who can cast more light on that saga but will try to find out!

[ 02 January 2002: Message edited by: BEagle ]</p>

[Art Field]

I do not know about the incident but I nearly had an incident of my own when I saw the title of this post, made my poor old heart miss a beat or two.

[RAGBAG]

IIRC it was a Waddington squadron on an west-about deployment to the Far East. The VC10 nav had decided to practise a bit of grid nav but unfortunately applied the gravation in the wrong sense. I believe that the pax had started to notice something but that it was the coast of Greenland which gave the clue(!) that someting might be amiss. The incident occurred in the late '60s and was fully covered in Air Clues some time later. The Vulcan squadron deploying was 101 or 50, not 44.

RAGBAG

[Flatus Veteranus]

It was supporting a 101 Sqn deployment on "Sunflower" (Westabout) to Butterworth. I believe the captain was ex-101. Story was that the captain chatted up the passengers on the PA saying "sorry about the cloud cover, but there would be nothing to see anyway as we are over the ocean. At that moment Greenland's icy mountains became clearly visible through a gap in the clouds and one of the passengers drew the attention of the cabin staff to this discrepancy. I gather it was the longest Waddo/Goose stage ever flown! <img src="redface.gif" border="0">

[ijp471]

Apparently the VC10 crew was slumming it in on-base overnight accommodation prior to depature. In mitigation, I believe they claimed lack of crew rest due to the disturbance caused by a function in the nearby Airman's Mess <img src="rolleyes.gif" border="0"> Supposedly the incident wouldn't have occurred if the crew had stayed at the Eastgate Hotel or similar. :)
I'm not sure this sort of incident was that uncommon in the earlier days of the 'V Force'. I have heard a story of a Vulcan returning to UK from Goose Bay to Waddington inadvertantly tracking via Southern Ireland and France (rather than via Scotland), although I can't confirm this from personal experience. :)

[Blacksheep]

Flatus has it right. Supposed to be going to Washington (Dulles) but made an unscheduled refuelling stop at Goose. Think it was 1967 but the Talisker has killed too many of my brain cells to remember exactly. I DO remember we had a very young, very innocent, very virgin Painter/Doper on the detachment who came back as a raving drunken sex maniac. Something to do with the combination of tropical heat, Penang bar-girls, and Tiger Beer I believe. Great fun those 'Sunflowers', regardless of the quality of the navigation. Our compensation for all the 'Mickey Finns' I believe...

Does anyone know what happened to the 10 Squadron navigator?

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Through difficulties to the cinema

[oldgit47]

Met and talked to the navigator concerned. The basic gist of the story is poor nights sleep, unauthorised gyro navigation sortie with I believe Earth Rate set the wrong way on the compass. After three hours or so it was the young copilot who noticed a continuous weather return in front. He was told to shut up as it was ice cap, but being July, said he didn't expect to see ice south of Greenland. The navigator now tried night astro but it would not now work because they were 600 nms north of track. Random selection of Greenland ndb's now locked on to Kulusuk, about 200 nms on their left hand side. By following the beacons through Prince Christian, they managed to get to Gander on minimums. By this stage they had generated overdue action and a major Norad alert. They were instantly grounded and the AOC insisted that a new captain and nav be sent out. The story has been told in Air Clues, sometime in the seventies, I believe.

[FJJP]

Or the Vulcan crew flyng back from Goose after a thumping good night out who one by one fell asleep. The ac kept going along the 61N parallel until the crew chief woke the nav rad when he spotted land (north of Scotland) tracking along the bottom of the screen. Believe that Q Lightnings were brought to cockpit readiness to intercept if it threatened to go anywhere near Soviet airspace. Anybody know the details?

[Blacksheep]

Royal Air Force navigators never get lost, although, as in the VC10 incident, they may be temporarily unsure of their position. With two navigators the mighty Vulcan was always absolutely CERTAIN of its position so they must actually have been testing Fighter Command's air defences. [remember - this was before all the bombers and fighters went on Strike]

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Through difficulties to the cinema