Don't argue with HD; if he says it was a VC10 then it was!(Sorry don't know how to attach 'smilies')

Could this have been the incident that Mr Oleo Strut referred to? It would make sense if it had been a 707 as the VC10 histories that are out there would certainly have mentioned an incident like this.

Well, he should know - shouldn't he ?

It was indeed a 707-436 after training at Stansted. There is a video somewhere of the landing from the BBC news I think.

There were a good few 707 u/c incidents - how about the one which suffered a main wheel collapse on the corner of the inner taxiway at Heathrow just by the G stands. It was fully laden.

As for the VC10 incident - how many of the "experts" on here were actually there when it happened?

Regarding the 707-436 ex Stansted landing on 28R at LHR. the nose gear doors stayed open but no proper nose gear extension as it had not been properly assembled after maintenance.
I would need to check my logbook for the date, late 1960s would be about it - but I'm pretty sure it was March 31st as I was late home for my sons birthday party!

AAIB Investigation EW/C/162 (which, alas, I don't have a copy of) relates to an incident/accident involving G-APFP on 31/3/1967.

That sounds like it - jeeps was it fifty years ago!!

A little more detail, courtesy of the excellent Pete Bish/Brian Piket book on the first 50 years of ATC at Heathrow:

G-APFP's nose gear had retracted with the wheels offset by a few degrees to starboard. When the gear was subsequently selected down, the port nose wheel lodged on the edge of the wheel bay and stalled the activating jack and the emergency lowering system.

Following the landing, a fire caused by burning magnesium in the NLG fairing was quickly extinguished by the AFS.

I was on duty in the Tower, the night the Chipmunk landed on the Grass to the North of 28R. We never saw it and it was not until the North side Met Office rang the tower about 0615 and asked what the light plane was doing on the grass outside their office, that we became aware of the Chippie. There was no sign of the pilot and Passenger who had scarpered under the cover of Darkness. KCW was the watch manager, oh happy days.
Doug B

Ah! One of the rare front opening CL-44s.

26left Glad you're still with us Doug. Happy Days indeed. Bren

Doug
 

How much longer of your sentence to serve? Brian W

I was nowhere near, that's for sure. But I may be getting slightly confused here. Mr Oleo Strut mentioned a VC10 landing with the nose gear retracted on a foam carpet on the North runway, but from some of the responses I deduced that this may well have been 707-436 G-APFP on 31/3/1967.

You mentioned a Ghana Airways VC10 landing with its brakes set. That's another one that's new to me, but could it be that we're getting these two confused or was there also a VC10 that landed without an extended nosegear?

The Soviet types with glazed noses were a longstanding feature through to the earlier Tupolev 154s. It was actually where the navigator's station was, entered by a short tunnel in the middle of the console between the pilots, normally covered by a loose curtain. A substantial sextant was mounted in there, which more than one visitor mistook for a "spy camera" ! A hijack attempt once by an intruder trying to overcome the pilots was dealt with by the nav suddenly making an appearance from behind their curtain :)


A BEA Comet 4B doing a similar power check did override the chocks, lunged forward, and crashed into hangar doors ahead, which fell forward onto unlucky Trident 'PI which was inside. It was repaired, but was lost shortly afterwards in the Staines accident, and initial investigation was whether the repairs had somehow failed.

Interesting, I'd never heard of that one.

Papa India must have had a very unlucky life. Prior to the Staines disaster it had its tail chopped off in the 1968 Ambassador crash at LHR (which was also looked at as part of the Staines investigation).

So it sounds like the hangar incident may have happened while it was being repaired, or some time following its return to service in February 1969.

I remember doing 4-engine runups on Merchantmen where we were pointing at the hangars, but by the time I joined BEA (just as the last Comet was being retired) all the jet detuners were oriented so that aircraft pointed out towards the airfield, so no likelihood of any repetition.

They might be with us, but their memory is fading.
The Comet over the Viscount chocks was 28Feb68=G-ARGM
The short landing VC15 was EastAf on 10L


oh 26L - I still have the Comet on it's belly pic TKU

707's LHR
 

also
Olympic 707 and 720B
Air Mauritius
Syrian
Air Malta
MSA
Cyprus AW
JAT
Turkish
Iran Air
Kenya AW and Simba cargo 707
EI 707's and (720 in 1960's)
seaboard world
British eagle 1968
BCAL freighter
Tarom
Zambia
LLoyd
Malaysian
EAAC

Iran air had a n'g collapse too so did LH and PIA i think

There was also the "Three Crowns" in Stanwell - I used to lodge there during the week when I was training at LHR.