Not forgetting 1998 when Leeds United FC came close to being written off


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....f8d896b587.jpg

Thanks for posting those two incidents up guys. I wasn’t aware of the Air UK one and hadn’t realised that the Leeds Utd football team headline happened at Stansted.

Apart from the BEA Argosy landing accident ending up in someone’s garden, and the Korean Air 747 - are there any other incidents of note that happened at Stansted?



Rob

Wyvernfan

This is probably as good a list of incidents as any:
https://aviation-safety.net/database...ort.php?id=STN

There was Monarch's 1-11, GAXMG I think, doing touch and go's. Unfortunately they did one with the wheels up! Probably late 70s early 80s.

I think the Monarch 1’11 incident was 1977, I remember seeing it patched up ready to be ferried out. There was also a Uganda 707 that ran off the side of the runway in the snow and sank in the soft ground, apparently one or more of the reverses failed to deploy. The runway was blocked for quite some time. Normally that wouldn’t have caused much chaos, but there were quite a few Gatwick fog diversions there that day, winter 77/78.
I have heard about several other earlier incidents, Lloyd Britannia nose undercarriage collapse, Air Charter York, belly landing, after undercarriage retracted too early during takeoff! There were also a few fatal accidents in the 50’s.

A Falcon 900 diverted to Stansted in the early 2000's with gear troubles, gear collapsed and went through the PAPIs.
Was in the hanger being repaired for a few weeks.

OB

I can't find my logbook at present, otherwise, I could date the Monarch 1-11 wheels-up. I was doing my recurrent base check (TMAC) that day and we were sharing the circuit with them. All stopped after that as the runway was blocked for a while! Next day, the aeroplane was in the TMAC hangar having been put back on its wheels. The damage looked remarkably slight.

There was a really significant incident when a DC-8, which may have been a Nigerian airline and a Phillipino operator (ACMI?) carried out an approach in very low RVR and on going round, struck the tail of a Flying Tiger DC-8 parked over on the old main apron, where Harrods is now. Late '79 I think. It then diverted to Manchester IIRC.

I believe, the crew were not familiar with the "approach ban" limitations and how they apply in the UK and felt being "cleared for the approach" by ATC gave them the authority to have a look, even though the RVR being reported was below minima. Cue: much revision of the approach ban, its implications and when and where you could continue/were required to break off an approach by all and sundry.

ATEL looked after an Aero Commander (G-ASIO) I flew for a short time. The ATEL chaps were excellent and seemed to like working on the aeroplane. Their hangar was always full of interesting stuff, Tradewinds '44s, itinerant 707s, Turkish Air Force Viscounts, etc.

Happy days!

Monarch 1-11 was 27th Feb 1978.

Do recall the DC-8 incident vaguely, but nothing on Aviation Safety...

Ah, here it is...

Nigeria Airways - its a crate way to travel
 

Stansted was the scene of an interesting political incident in 1984 when Umaru Dikko, a Nigerian politician, was kidnapped in London. He was located at the airport in a crate together with a medic having been drugged just before being loaded on to a Nigerian Airlines 707. Needless to say diplomatic relations between UK and Nigeria were a tad strained in the next couple of years. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obi...-obituary.html

My first time through must have been 1978, on of all things a BA 747 inbound from Los Angeles. There was a strike in progress at Heathrow, and we landed not to disembark but to reprovision some aspect (not fuel) before continuing after about an hour. The only other aircraft visible I recall was a Ugandan cargo 707 sat in a corner.

Should have been flying out of there yesterday morning as well, but that trip has been lost ...

The LEDA was not owned or operated by Tor Line.

The LEDA was completed in 1953 by Swan Hunters, Tyneside for the Norwegian company Bergen Line for service between Bergen, Stavanger and Newcastle.

Withdrawn from service in 1973 and sold to Saudi Arabia as a pilgrim ship. Sold again in 1983 and converted into a cruise ship. After several owner's and names she was eventually scrapped in 2002.

The Swedish company Tor Line was formed in 1964 with operations commencing in 1966 between Immingham and Gothenburg with the TOR HOLLANDIA.

I do recall that a British Airtours/British Airways Boeing 707-436 whilst on crew training at London Stansted Airport during the seventies crashed whilst attempting a touch and go. The aircraft belly flopped onto the runway and caught fire.

I have tried to search online for a link to the story but I couldn't find anything related to the incident but I'm sure that I had previously read about it somewhere online.

A similar incident with a British Airtours Boeing 707-436 also occurred at Prestwick Airport during the seventies.

That was G-APFK at Prestwick in March 1977.

Yes I'm aware of the Prestwick incident as mentioned in my post but I'm fairly certain that a similar incident also occurred at London Stansted.

I was 16 in 1983 and desperate for an apprenticeship but all the airlines still had training programs frozen from the recession of the time. I applied to ATEL and although they couldn't offer me a place they extended an invite to come down (I lived in Lancashire) and have a look around. The old boy who ran their training department was a welcome host and me & my dad spent a few hours at H4 (?). I remember a ZAS 707F in for a check and the floor was rotten from camel piss. I loved all the 4-holers that we didn't get to see at MAN. The place was eerily quiet compared to MAN but had a great day out. Also had my first experience of Abbot Ale in the pub in the village (sorry occifer, only time I ever drank under-age....).

Think BEA had an Argosy crew training prang at Stansted in the late '60s.

Yes I believe so and that incident has already been mentioned in a previous post but the incident that I'm referring to definitely involved a B707 and occurred sometime during the seventies.

If it did, (a) they kept it very quiet and (b) repaired the aircraft. The only BA/Airtours -436 loss was the one at Prestwick.

Yes I'm sure that if it happened they wouldn't have kept it quiet and whilst I'd been searching online for any incident involving a B707 at London Stansted I'd noticed that the only BA/KT B707-436 loss was the one at Prestwick.

But if you've read my posts on this thread your notice that I do have a very good memory and although I can't add anything further at this time I'm quite certain of an event of some kind involving a B707 at London Stansted Airport sometime during the seventies.

The similarity of the incident that I'm thinking of at London Stansted to the one at Prestwick is where I might have imagined it being a KT Boeing 707-436.

But we all live and learn throughout our lives even if we do think that we already know it all but I look forward to someone bringing up a story regarding some sort of incident at London Stansted Airport during the seventies but I'm grown up enough to be informed otherwise.

If it's totally proven wrong and instead it's just a figment of my imagination I can thereby ommmit it from my memory 😉

TCU many thanks for that, very helpful. I hadn’t realised the Argosy accident was that bad, having just read that it cartwheeled. Strewth what a mess.

Thanks also to everyone’s else’s contributions, fascinating stuff!


Rob