Pelican 16 Mk3 Shackleton
 

Has anybody made any attempt to recover anything from the downed Shackleton, after it came down in Mauritainia ( a UN patrolled War area, when the crash happened) or is it lost for all time to the sands of the Southern Sahara. ?

Peter R-B
Lancashire

Pictures taking just after the forced landing did show the aircraft to be fairly intact. I understood that due to a emergency beacon transmitting the local air force were tasked to destroy the wreck

Google Earth suggests that there is still something with a white roof "parked" out in the desert!

Google Maps

1716 has been gutted from stem to stern. Even the fuel tanks have been ripped out the wings.

I asked some SAAF people involved whether I could go get pieces (I wanted the BP front turret for WR963) and they were quite happy for me to go ahead.

It appears my initial comments were incorrect. Various google searchs reveal a overland visit to the site and you tube a over flight.......

https://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/...l/77087046.jpg

Copied this off Google earth pics. No date.

not Mauritania
 

Sorry but, the a/c is just outside the border of northwestern Mauritanian.
Southern Western/Spanish Sahara is the Location.

The Google Earth link shows its Position. The best way is either 4-wheel drive or helicopter.
There are few civilian helicopters in the area.
I know, I spent several years flying them there.

The original crew and a representative from the SA Diplomatic Corp(Paris) along with an unamed man(for this post) met with us in Lancashire with the purpose of purchasing new engines and many spares (that we then owned) for their remaining Pelican(s) but sadly the new Mandela Gov would not allow any funds to be spent for preserving old A/c, even doing a swop for other A/c was deemed not acceptable to the new regime.

Its a shame Pelican 16 was trashed for it did contain some interesting things in the bomb bay (allegedly).

Thank you all for the updated info!!

Peter R-B
Lancashire

no-mans land
 

Yes, its a shame it did not land closer to shore or a road.
Of course one would have had to be quick to get what they wanted as the locals would have been there just as fast.
Since it was on its way to europe it must have had lots of airworthly items on board that could have been used by other Shackletons.
Too Bad!

Here's the story of Pelican-16..
Part 1
Part 2

Fascinating. Thanks for the steer.

Beautifully made film. The man really cared.

Don't know if this will get in under the radar of the advert-Stasi ?
The S.A.A.F. Museum had some remarkable photo books on their shacks and Pelican 16 DVD available at reasonable prices. The airmail was not quite so reasonable but worth it.
Hope it helps.
Be lucky
David

[QUOTE=sidevalve;10039903]Here's the story of Pelican-16..


Very moving story.

Great Movie !!
Re Shackletons Many moons a go I was involved in moving a complete TSR 2 from Henlow ! I have no idea how it got there !
But in the next hanger were a collection of Shackletons parts in various configs including a
complete aircraft!

That was XF703, flown into Henlow on 23 September 1971 for the RAF Museum collection, but scrapped there in 1975.

Completely off topic but how the TSR.2 got there is easy - it went by road! My dad was one of the police outriders who escorted it there although how and why he went all the way to Henlow when he was Hertfordshire Police I've no idea. It was 1967 at an educated guess. He got talking to the, presumably RAF, chappie on the gate and arranged for the two of us to get in at a weekend to see the aircraft that had been collected for the Battle of Britain film.

Steve, It wasn't scapped there. It was complete when we moved it from the bottom hangar ( by the road) and we moved it on Hover platforms (4 of them) up to the top hangars. The Hover only provided the lift. There was no moving power. We towed the complete ensemble up to the hangers with tractors. It was then moved on a transporter lorry. To where I am not sure to where it ended up.

As alluded to by Steve, XF703 remained intact from its arrival at Henlow in September 1971 until July 1975.

If it was subsequently removed on a transporter it would be reasonable to assume that it was no longer complete at that point, hence presumably the references to it having been scrapped while at Henlow.

Dave,
We moved it on 4 coupled hover platforms and it was complete when it went up to the hangars. The tranporters where there when we delivered it. I admit I did not see it actually depart Henlow but if it was going to be dismantled then I would have thought it would be done at the bottom hangers where the Shackes were being stripped.