French Navy Lancaster WU 21 accident at Wallis Island, South Pacific 26/Jan, 1963

[A37575]

On 26 January 1962 a French Navy Lancaster WU 21 pranged on landing at Wallis Island in the South Pacific. Apparently it suffered severe fluid loss from the hydraulic system which meant only partial flap went down and no brake pressure. The runway was wet and the aircraft over-ran the airstrip until the right wheel hit a ditch beyond the end of the runway causing the right landing gear to collapse. The aircraft was considered a write off and it was left to rot at Wallis for 20 years. Eventually (and it is a long and fascinating story) the French transported the remains by ship to France where it has been partially restored by Ailes Anciennes le Bourget.

I read a brief description of the cause of the accident in a pamphlet published by this Museum and I wondered about the apparent brake failure caused by total loss of hydraulic fluid.

I flew Lincolns which had pneumatic brakes and so I thought Lancasters too must have had pneumatic brakes. Can someone tell me if the Lancasters destined for the French in 1951 and subsequently used by them for maritime recce in the South Pacific (New Caledonia) in 1957, were modified to have hydraulic brakes? In fact did all Lancs during the war have hydraulic brakes and not pneumatic brakes?

The actual extract from the pamphlet read as follows: "Nearing Futuna the (captain) notices a huge hydraulic leak: It has become impossible to pull the flaps down to 20 degrees, they are stuck at 7 degrees. Anyway the mail was dropped at 1610 (26 Jan 1963) while the aircraft was 1200 ft high and 140 knots.

Then she went back up to 3000 ft towards Wallis the flaps still stuck. Nearing Wallis now in very bad weather, two parachutes were ready to slow her down if necessary and the mechanic aded two more cans of hydraulic fluid. At 1650 landing strip in sight, soft landing with no brakes, props at low pitch, trap doors open (bomb bay doors?). 1000 metres later at a lower speed the right wheel dives into a hole full of water, the landing gear collapses, engine No 4 the tip of the wing, and the drift violently hit the ground. Only a few bumps for the crew but the aircraft is out of order. Another Lancaster WU 15 will fetch the crew and sick child and WU21 will be pushed to the end of the runway...she will stay there for 20 years."

The flaps on the Lincoln flap gauge were marked in quarters, half, three quarter and full flap. I thought the Lancaster flaps would have been the same -in other words not in degrees?

Would be most grateful for any comments?

[avionic type]

According to the Air Ministry Notes for the F/E [Googled]it states under Pneumatic Systems ,a Air Compressor is fitted to the Stb Inner engine and operates the following , WHEEL BRAKES, and Radiator shutters, and on A/C fitted with the Merlin Mk28 and 38 it also operated the change over jack for the Idle Cutoff Jack,plus of course keeps the air resevoir bottle fully charged
The reason I looked it up I dimly remember after we'd chocked the a/c we asked for the brakes to be released and hearing the hiss of air .
hope this helps.

[Lancman]

Lancaster brakes were pneumatic, basically air bags operating on drum brake pads.
Flap settings were 15* when turning onto base leg, 30* turning finals and 45* (full flap) on late finals. Selected by the F/E using a stirrup shaped handle with down, up, and neutral positions.

[Shackman]

Shackleton - same system (hyds for flaps, pneumatic brakes etc from both inboard engine compressors). Had the hyd system fail (pressure pipe burst) on selecting full flap landing at Seletar (only about 4000 ft of runway) - the flaps then retracted but we weren't aware of that, only the pitch (attitude) change, fast touchdown and the brakes didn't work very well until about half way down the runway. Stopped just short of the water and had to be towed back!

[A37575]

Thanks for the replies. I hope to locate the official accident report on WU21 the French Navy Lancaster. The French museum Ailes Anciennes Le Bourget, have a brief English language description of the event on 26 January 1963, but nothing technical you can get your teeth into.

[Richard Woods]

Its probably been seen by a lot of you before but the photo's of a Lanc rotting on a Pacific island, and the work done so far always amazes me.

Link:

Lancaster wu21, page 2

As for pneumatics on a Shackleton, I have that task to look forward to over the next couple of weeks.

Regards

Rich

[A37575]

Its probably been seen by a lot of you before but the photo's of a Lanc rotting on a Pacific island, and the work done so far always amazes me

Richard Woods.

Thanks for the link. I used google to translate from the French and read with some trepidation the following extract from the report:

"The first of three teams arrived at Wallis in May 1984...the only big encountered problem were the giant wasps which had selected residence in the Lancaster and did not want to see it leaving..."

Being one of the Air Nauru 737 pilots that visited the Lancaster in the scrub at the end of the runway circa 1978-83, I never saw these giant wasps, thank goodness. The locals who lived in the area swore that ghostly spirits lived in the Lanc. Depending how big these bloody wasps were, they might have been mistaken for spirits especially as the local brew was very potent

[Richard Woods]

Sorry, the link was posted in haste as I left work. If you track back to the homepage you can select "English" as the language and the whole site is translated.

The last I heard when talking to some French Lancaster enthusiasts was that the original pilots seat is still in use on the island by a local dentist!

Kind regards,

Rich