Surtchris
17th Dec 2010, 16:53
On January 14th 1956, at Nairobi, I boarded BOAC Flight 160/968 - Argonaut GALHT. I was seven years old and flying back to London on my own under the care of an airhostess. The plane departed after lunch and landed at Entebbe and took off again for Khartoum. Half an hour into the flight the airhostess took me up to the cockpit. The captain had a magnificent handle bar moustache and he and the first officer were enjoying a glass of sherry (Those were the days.) Five minutes after I left the cockpit the port outer engine failed for the second time that day. (I have checked the records at the British Airways museum. The booster had failed and it had failed earlier that morning on the outbound sector from Entebbe to Nairobi). The passengers, of course, blamed me; I must have been fiddling with things in the cockpit!!
We returned to Entebbe the engine was fixed and about three and a half hours later we took off again for Khartoum. An hour later the port outer failed again but this time we landed in a jungle airfield. It was a terrible landing; my new Uncle, as I called him, a kindly, elderly gentleman who sat next to me and sort of adopted me on the flight home said that there was no such thing as a bad landing, as long as you walked away from it. When the passengers saw the terminal building they were joking that we must have landed at Timbuktu. The steps were not high enough and we all had to be helped off the aircraft and the passengers were then herded onto a raised wooden platform with railings and a thatched roof. There were some seats but not enough for all of us; most of the men were standing. A few minutes after we landed the captain was bellowing at ten or more Ugandans, there were no white people at the airfield, who were running all over the wings of the aircraft. His exact words I can still remember, ‘How many of you Zulus does it take to fix one bloody aeroplane?’ Eventually an older and very dignified Ugandan engineer walked up to the captain who was shaking with rage and managed to calm him down. The engineer said he had spare parts and could fix our engine.
For four hours we all sat in the shelter with jungle night noises all around us while the engineer worked on the engine with an assistant holding a light attached to a cable. The flight crew never spoke to the passengers and stood together staring at the engineer; they were clearly all traumatised. I now know why, as all the flight logs have been altered. They shouldn’t have landed at this airfield and if BOAC had ever found out where their plane was their wrath would have been terrible. The Ugandan engineer was not a BOAC engineer and nobody knew his qualifications; given the jungle terrain I suspect high altitude, a heavy payload about forty passengers, a short runway and tanks full enough to get us to Khartoum. Basically the captain had two options; call for help, in which case he would have probably lost his command or take off and try and cover the whole thing up. The engineer did fix the engine and we took off. The passengers were terrified; we started the take off over rough ground near the trees and the plane was banging about all over the place and I remember that I couldn’t keep my arms on the seat rest.
The logs record that Hotel Tango departed Nairobi at 17.50 and over flew Entebbe to make up time arriving at London Heathrow North at 17.50, seven and a half hours late, without having an engine failure or technical problem. I know the name of the captain and the one that took over at Khartoum and I have all the times of arrival and departure at Khartoum, Cairo and Rome. I have flown light aircraft and I am an accomplished simulator pilot and used to setting up flight plans and the logs, given the Argonaut cruise speed of 280 knots, allowing for climb/descent and time zone changes are just a huge ‘shaggy dog story’ unless the plane was flying round in circles.
I have had one book published and am writing another and although the book is not about the flight I want to mention this incident as I was mesmerised as a boy by the Ugandan engineer; he had a real presence and working on his own managed to achieve what the BOAC engineers at Nairobi and Entebbe hadn’t; he fixed our engine and it didn’t go wrong again. I suspect that all the passengers on that aircraft were lucky to have survived that take off. My publishers are worried about potential litigation - presumably British Airways. I can’t really see why after so many years they would be that interested and I have no intention of mentioning the name of the captain.
This was really quite a major incident and I cannot believe that somebody hasn’t heard about it from the flight crew or cabin crew some of whom although in their late seventies or early eighties would still be around. Any information would be helpful. I really need to find somebody who can confirm what happened.
We returned to Entebbe the engine was fixed and about three and a half hours later we took off again for Khartoum. An hour later the port outer failed again but this time we landed in a jungle airfield. It was a terrible landing; my new Uncle, as I called him, a kindly, elderly gentleman who sat next to me and sort of adopted me on the flight home said that there was no such thing as a bad landing, as long as you walked away from it. When the passengers saw the terminal building they were joking that we must have landed at Timbuktu. The steps were not high enough and we all had to be helped off the aircraft and the passengers were then herded onto a raised wooden platform with railings and a thatched roof. There were some seats but not enough for all of us; most of the men were standing. A few minutes after we landed the captain was bellowing at ten or more Ugandans, there were no white people at the airfield, who were running all over the wings of the aircraft. His exact words I can still remember, ‘How many of you Zulus does it take to fix one bloody aeroplane?’ Eventually an older and very dignified Ugandan engineer walked up to the captain who was shaking with rage and managed to calm him down. The engineer said he had spare parts and could fix our engine.
For four hours we all sat in the shelter with jungle night noises all around us while the engineer worked on the engine with an assistant holding a light attached to a cable. The flight crew never spoke to the passengers and stood together staring at the engineer; they were clearly all traumatised. I now know why, as all the flight logs have been altered. They shouldn’t have landed at this airfield and if BOAC had ever found out where their plane was their wrath would have been terrible. The Ugandan engineer was not a BOAC engineer and nobody knew his qualifications; given the jungle terrain I suspect high altitude, a heavy payload about forty passengers, a short runway and tanks full enough to get us to Khartoum. Basically the captain had two options; call for help, in which case he would have probably lost his command or take off and try and cover the whole thing up. The engineer did fix the engine and we took off. The passengers were terrified; we started the take off over rough ground near the trees and the plane was banging about all over the place and I remember that I couldn’t keep my arms on the seat rest.
The logs record that Hotel Tango departed Nairobi at 17.50 and over flew Entebbe to make up time arriving at London Heathrow North at 17.50, seven and a half hours late, without having an engine failure or technical problem. I know the name of the captain and the one that took over at Khartoum and I have all the times of arrival and departure at Khartoum, Cairo and Rome. I have flown light aircraft and I am an accomplished simulator pilot and used to setting up flight plans and the logs, given the Argonaut cruise speed of 280 knots, allowing for climb/descent and time zone changes are just a huge ‘shaggy dog story’ unless the plane was flying round in circles.
I have had one book published and am writing another and although the book is not about the flight I want to mention this incident as I was mesmerised as a boy by the Ugandan engineer; he had a real presence and working on his own managed to achieve what the BOAC engineers at Nairobi and Entebbe hadn’t; he fixed our engine and it didn’t go wrong again. I suspect that all the passengers on that aircraft were lucky to have survived that take off. My publishers are worried about potential litigation - presumably British Airways. I can’t really see why after so many years they would be that interested and I have no intention of mentioning the name of the captain.
This was really quite a major incident and I cannot believe that somebody hasn’t heard about it from the flight crew or cabin crew some of whom although in their late seventies or early eighties would still be around. Any information would be helpful. I really need to find somebody who can confirm what happened.