Can anyone remember this accident?

[OUAQUKGF Ops]

The Captain's name was not Hazlehurst. Not that it's relevant all these years later.

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by GotTheTshirt

The incident referred to was an HS125 owned by Beechams and maintained and crewed by Autair
It was Christmas eve and they had be checking out a new co-pilot in the afternoon.
They stopped for waiting for dark(,and a cuppa ) -and aircraft was ready in the evening.
The Training Captain ( Hazlehurst I think not sure !).
Took off when it was dark and were doing the engine failure on takeoff.
The aircraft crashed onto the Vauxhall factory at the end of the runway.
Being Christmas eve the assembly line was not working
With the FDR info the profile was flown on the HS 125 simulator in the USA.
I was concluded that the training captain pulled back one engine and the pupil shut down the other engine.
The end of the assembly line and the end of the building was destroyed - And aircraft !)
Vauxhall pulled in a 24 hour crew ( on Christmas eve !) and they worked round the clock. The line was running when the people returned to work after Christmas

Obviously that's not the event referred to in the original post (assuming said event happened at all).

[ericferret]

Originally Posted by DaveReidUK

That's my understanding, too. The AAIB's own online search is pretty dire, partly because the underlying database is flaky.

Getting back to the original topic, while I enjoy a mystery as much as the next person, this one is changing criteria faster than I can keep up with so I'll leave the search to those with more patience than I have.

If you can pin down the accident the AAIB are very helpful. Supplied me with the accident report for the crash of a Hughes 300, American registered, from 1964.

[Brookmans Park]

The Autair 125 captain was Harry Broadhurst,not to be confused with "Hazel" Hazelden former Handley Page Chief Test Pilot and long term Autair/Court Line trainer,whose own career is worth Googling

[OUAQUKGF Ops]

I think in fairness to the Training Captain's Family (And a very experienced pilot he was too) you chaps should get his name right before posting.

Harry Dryhurst.

[Herod]

Capt Hedley "Hazel" Haselden, Base Captain Air Anglia Aberdeen, late seventies. I had the honour of doing my RHS line-training with Hazel in '79, on the F27. To give some idea of this man's experience. I as born in '46. Hedley was on No. 1 ETPS course in 1943. In other words, I was being trained by someone who was a test pilot three years before I was born! The phrase "he had forgotten more about flying than I was to learn in a 38 year career" was very true.

[Arthur Bellcrank]

Captain Hazelden was chief test pilot of Handley Page Ltd and spent ten years on the Herald development, he piloted the modified HPR7 G-AODE that crashed at Godalming in 1958. This was caused by an uncontained LP turbine failure on the No 2 engine, however despite this Sqn Ldr Hazelden wrote very warmly about the Dart Herald in the introduction to the book by G Cowell, he compared it to the F27 and the HS748 and in his opinion the Herald was the nicest to fly.

[Herod]

"Hazel's" Herald accident was quite a story. As Arthur says, the turbine disc failed and succeeded in badly rupturing the fuel lines. No means of shutting off the fuel, therefore the extinguishers had no effect. The stbd tailplane burnt away, and eventually No. 2 engine fell off. However, the wing continued to burn. Selecting the landing site, Hazel found an 80 ft high tree and a farm roller at his selected touchdown point and High Tension cables further ahead. Over the tree and under the cables. No one was hurt.

Oh, and a true gentleman to boot. An honour to have flown with him.

[bean]

Gross thread drift but Arthur Bellcrank is right. The Herald was very highly regarded by its pilots.
Herod did the F27 have spring servo tabs? Was it pleasant to fly? Pure curiosity

[bean]

There are at least 2 more turbine wheel departures on darts in GB alone. HS748 at Stansted and F27 at Jersey

[Herod]

Bean. More thread drift. Regarding tabs, I can't recall for sure (it was 32 years ago I left the fleet). Pleasant to fly, yes, except when flap was deployed. Aileron response then was rather sluggish. Perhaps the reason Fokker put the "foklkets" on the F-50 wingtips, presumably to limit spanwise flow. Built like a tank, and could take anything the weather could throw at it.

[treadigraph]

I remember seeing an aerial pic of the Herald in a field at Milford after the prang with something of an s shaped trail left in the dirt behind it. To the west, I fancy of the present A3. As I recall it had been on a SBAC photo shoot with Farnborough's C-82 /C-119?

[DaveReidUK]

The Herald was in formation with a Victor for photos en route from Woodley to the Farnborough display. Other reports mention a Hastings, which may have been the camera ship.



Handley Page Dart Herald (G-AODE) crash, Milford, August 1958

[Herod]

Thanks, Dave, not seen that pic before. Regarding the Hastings, I belive there was one acting as a camera ship. I've not seen any pictures from that though. One of the Herald still airborne would have been interesting.

[treadigraph]

Now you mention it I think it was indeed a Hastings. There was an article about the accident in one of the magazines years ago - Flypast or Aeroplane Monthly perhaps.

I've seen other air to air stuff which was shot from a C-119 which confused me until I saw something about the RAE having one for a bit! Spot of conflation there...

Edit: RAE had loan of a C-119 for about six weeks in the Spring of 1955.