LHR 05/23 DC8-63 mishap late 1960's early 1970's

[G&T ice n slice]

I recall being told that one very blustery day a landing DC8-63 was strugling to keep on the glidescope and just after it crossed the threshold the wind died.. at which point the aircraft dropped out of the sky.

cue EVERYONE in the LHR tower jumping onto the big red button...

apparently the (starboard?) MLG was hammered up into the wing but amazingly aircraft came to a safe stop with the (STB?) outer engine an inch from the ground.

Aircraft was temporarily repaired and flown unpressurised back to its European base with u/c down and (so I recall being told) at 2,500 feet under VFR...

I've tried to find anything that matches with this but no luck.

Is it an 'apocryphal' [like the "gold brick that propped the door open for 30 years and no-one noticed]

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

I know my memory is shot to bits but I was associated with Heathrow for most of my life, initially as a spotter and later as an ATCO and I cannot believe that something as you described occurred without me knowing. Perhaps it is a conglomoration of several incidents - the Canadian DC8 which overran 28R into the cabbage patch in November, 1963, and the PanAm 747 which landed on 23L and ended up somewhat as you described in December, 1979.

"Everyone in the LHR Tower" do not reach for a red button when there is an incident. It is handled by the controller responsible for the aircraft in a calm manner.

As for a DC8 departing VFR, I think not! VFR flight is not permitted in the London Control Zone and it is unlikely that such an aircraft would fly from Heathrow to Europe at 2500 feet.

However...... in view of my memory I stand to be corrected...

[chevvron]

Surely if it happened as described, no engineer could sign it off for a fllight to a maintenance base due to the risk of the undercarriage leg piercing a fuel tank or rupturing fuel lines. Don't forget too that the -63 was the long fuselage version, so if it landed with such a high rate of descent, it would probably have had a tailstrike too; I've seen them taking off and they nearly have a tailstrike when they rotate!

[G&T ice n slice]

Well, it was a long time ago.. It was one of those stories that turned up in the pub one evening, so suspect was "embellished" a little (ahhh ok - 'a lot') . Could have been in the KHS, the KB4 or the KA HC. (I just looked at the KA HC website - good grief they've tidyed up it's all posh won;t go there).

Oh well, it will just sit in the back of the memory banks to pop up at random intervals to annoy me.

BTW the 'gold brick' is a true story*


*for a given value of "true"

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

<<Could have been in the KHS, the KB4 or the KA HC. >>

??

[G&T ice n slice]

Kings Head Shepperton
King William iv Sipson
Kings Arms Hampton Ct

a,, you obviously didn't partake there..

[Vercingetorix]

G & T
Could be this one:
BOAC Flight 712 B707 on Monday 8th April 1968.

Cheers

:ok:

[DaveReidUK]

Could be this one:
BOAC Flight 712 B707 on Monday 8th April 1968.

Hardly.

Aircraft was temporarily repaired and flown unpressurised back to its European base

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c3/G-ARWE-2.jpg/260px-G-ARWE-2.jpg

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

G&T Thanks.. No, I'm not a drinker.

[G&T ice n slice]

No, was def a DC8-63. I know it was before October 1973 because that's when I started with the carrier concerned. I'm pretty sure it was no earlier than 1968.

I have the vague recollection that the MLG on 1 side (STB?) had a partial failure - I think hydraulic seals went. Was repaired on temp basis & then flown back-to-base on special dispenation, low-level unpressurised "just in case".

I've tried all the usual searches but come up with zip.

ah well, as I say, it looks like one of those things that is too old to be in online records and not serious enough to be included in the usual sites..

We did have a 55F that flew sideways ...

[ATC Watcher]

We did have a 55F that flew sideways ..

Go ahead with the story, the exact one or the " bar" one afterwards. whatever..
always good to remember the old days..

I have a few DC8 and 707s stories as well, pre-just culture, when nothing was written down .But at least the guys in front then knew they had to push when flying too slow.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

<<No, was def a DC8-63. I know it was before October 1973 because that's when I started with the carrier concerned. I'm pretty sure it was no earlier than 1968.>>

OK. I derived my information from a list of accidents at Heathrow from 19 November 1946 to 5 November 1997 and it isn't in there.

[DaveReidUK]

apparently the (starboard?) MLG was hammered up into the wing

That amount of damage constitutes a reportable accident, in which case there should be some reference to the event in an AAIB report or bulletin.

[G&T ice n slice]

Yep, I would have thought so...

The 55F was "bent" ever so slightly - I think we sold it to a Panamanian company. Again I can't remember how it got bent... just that ALL the manuals had notes "not applicable to XX-XXX" and you'd have to go to the 'exceptions' pages. It used to plod back & forth over the Atlantic and it had a marginally worse performance than the others.

The "gold bar as a doorstop" story is apocryphal - it goes that in nineteencateen when we were in the "old warehouse" just after the war (WWI, WWII, War of Liberation whatever) there was a shipment of gold bars that were painted to disguise them (there are variations) and when they came to pick them up there was 1 missing. (fill in long story about police, insurance, heavyset men with threatening attitudes etc). When we moved everything over to the "new" warehouse the manager went round the old place turning off the lights, closing doors & making secure. When he went to leave the place through the side door he kicked the brick which held it open and broke his foot. Turns out the original bar never went missing, just someone used it to prop the door open and no-one noticed in (insert 10, 25, 50) years.
That story I have heard repeated as "gospel" from most cargo chaps from almost everywhere.

So now I've got 2 mysteries - A bent DC8-55F and a whoopsie with a DC8-63
These are going to annoy me ...

[Loki]

I'm sure it happened whilst I was there....though not working that day, so sometime between June 1970 and june 1973.

[Flitefone]

I remember two incidents both with DC 8-63 and both on the southerly runway. The first was an air Canada aircraft that had been damaged I think in a heavy landing in Paris Orly. It was ferried empty to LHR for repairs. If I remember well it was an undercarriage down ferry and there was something about damage to the pylon of one engine. Again I recall a three engine flight. This would have been about 1971. It landed at LHR with no drama, but eyebrows were raised about the wisdom of the ferry.

Second incident was seaboard world aircraft landing easterly this time, on what was then 10R. The weather was stormy.

Aircraft floated dreadfully until abeam the old tower and eventually touched down close to block 85 the intersection with 23/05, but very slow. That's still a lot of runway to have used up!

Having landed, the aircraft veered left and used the rest of the runway to stop, just! Having aquaplaned sideways with the nose pointing nearer to northeast than east after touchdown.

No damage, but an embarrassing taxi through the centre area to get to the cargo area on the south side. The pilot was instructed to vacate the runway right after landing...he said sorry, no way, we have to go left.!

Not related but I also remember a CL44 getting airborne from 10R in the same era, getting to about 50 feet agl, then sinking back to the runway. He kept going and eventually scraped away over London with an appalling rate of climb. Having used almost all the runway.

Things have changed!

FF

[G&T ice n slice]

You'll remember the "Prince of Darkness" then?

[ATC Watcher]

If we are now talking about CL44 rates of climb, I remember in 1977 or 78 watching the Aero Uruguay one from the Pub terrace in Luxemburg airport, using the whole runway then hopping briefly at the end and diseapearing below down the valley, only to resurface in sight 2 minutes later climbing with about 100 ft a min...
That very long runway and the valley at the end allowed to take a few more tons extra....
It worked...
That was pre iPhones and Internet era... today the video will end up in CNN in less than 1/2 hour...