Operation Victor Search
 

BBC News webpage carrying story today about efforts of fishermen to recover remains of Victor B2 that crashed in Aug 1959:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-66203375

While the expression "freak accident" is very overused, I think it's a pretty good description of this event:

"A fatigue fracture induced the loss of the starboard wingtip pitot head tube, which led to a low speed input to the auto Mach trim actuator and the stall detector thus lowering the elevators and extending the leading edge flaps. The aircraft progressed into a high speed dive from 54,000 feet. Partial structural failure preceded impact with the sea at Mach 0.855, into the Irish Sea off St Brides Bay, Pembrokeshire."

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/55309

James Hamilton-Paterson's super book, Empire of the Clouds, spells out the dangers of early post-war test flying. He made mention (my memory) of the Farnborough DH 110 crash and how in those days there weren't the law suites with their years of litigation. People were expected to get on with life best they could, just as they'd done in the war. Also, the loss of aircrew seemed relentless.

I flew for, and with, Pip/Spud Murphy on DC3s and although I was soon briefed by colleagues, he'd never mentioned what had happened, except that he'd lost a vertebra after ejecting.

I recall Gordon Corpse leaving Avigation (civil licence school) early one afternoon and saying 'That'll have to do. I'm test flying a Victor for the ARB this afternoon'. It seemed strange to me that a private company would be examining us, let alone test flying Vicotors and of course, Concorde. He'd been a Victor captain in the RAF. I might not have been so envious if I'd seen the above lists. It wasn't long before the ARB was absorbed into the ministry of aviation and then the CAA.

Victor at RAAF Butterworth
 

Posted to transit flight Butterworth in 1964, there was a Victor parked there that had an engine shed some blades perforating the fuselage etc.After repairs a crew arrived and flew it out,its documented somewhere,also in my dairy which is not with me!

I was a Rigger J/T on 231 OCU at that time - we had been moved lock stock and barrel from Cottesmore and 'ensconced' in the condemned buildings with external shoring adjacent to the threshold of rwy 24.
I was doing a 'starter crew ' with a T4 crew on the 'spectacles' pan right next to the rwy when 513 thundered off up the hill (which got my attention :) ),I turned back to the aircraft - probably nearing the time to swing the seat and remove the 'Pig Sticker' from the control column when there was a sudden deathly hush as 513's throttles were 'chopped'.
I looked around as 513 was disappearing over the rwy 'Hump' streaming the brake chute and thought to myself - ''should be ok from there'' - however I looked round a few seconds later to check and sure enough there was a large pall of smoke from the other end of the airfield - because of the Marham 'Hill' I could not actually see the end of the rwy.
I then said to the T4 QFI ''not worth starting engines'' (or words to that effect) whilst pointing at the pall of smoke - obviously they were not going anywhere.
IIRC - the K2 had only very recently been cleared for full fuel take offs ? we were much more used to the K1's going off in pairs.

Described by the co-pilot on the flight

This was only a minor 'accident'
I was on a so-called Pacific Ranger on Victor Tankers in c 1968 ish with the same Ken McClean (sp) as the Captain. We were en route from Offutt to McClellan and air traffic, who were helping us, gave us a very very quick descent clearance but we were far too fast and instead of going around Ken decided to land. He also decided not to deploy the brake chute (which was an absolute barsteward to repack). Anyway after shutting down, the brakes were making lots of smoke. We went to San Francisco for the weekend.On Monday morning the Crew Chief said that 7 of the 8 brakes were leaking so we were stuck in California for a week. We went to Lake Tahoe, Carson City and Reno etc. We then set off for Hickham and - dare I say- fortunately, the eighth brake unit was leaking so we were stuck in Hawaii for another five days. We then got to Wake where we were grounded for a week as there was some corrosion problem which needed an x ray test from the UK. We were then ordered to return to the UK via Hickam McClellan etc.
It was the best trip I ever did on the Tanker Force !