vulcan xl390 12 august 1978 glenview nas
 

Hi Everyone, I'm trying to get some details about the crash of Vulcan B2 XL390 for an old friend of mine. His son, Chris Ewards was the captain when it crashed during an air display at Glenview NAS Ill. USA 12/08/78. I've tried the web but to no effect, could anyone assist. Mike Edwards, dad, has no more than info. than I've shown here. Thanks Chris L

Chris

I hope this helps in your task, I have the crash date as 11th Aug 1978

In the 1960's seven B Mk.2 aircraft were converted from having Olympus Mk.201 engines to Mk.301s. They were XL384 through to XL390. Although it may appear to be a simple task, it was in fact a lengthy and costly conversion which grounded these aircraft for several months at a time

XL390 crashed into a rubbish tip whilst performing a display rehearsal at NAS Glenview, Chicago Illinois, when it stalled during a wing over manoeuver.
The aircraft was on the strength of No 617 Sqn at the time who were then based at RAF Scampton.

If I dig out anything else I will post it

BT

Without wishing to start an argument on such a thread, there were more than 7 airframes with the 301 series engines.

A quote from aeroflight.co.uk
May the memories of the crew always be present in our minds.

Chris, don't go there. Mr Edwards was fully briefed as to what happened. The engines had no bearing on the incident. To resurrect this incident will cause enormous pain to the families of those who died. Please let it rest. I know. I was deeply involved with the families in the aftermath.

FJJP

You point is very well taken, but just to put the record straight, I was only trying to pass on general information about the aircraft it was just some info I was able to get hold of,

I was not trying to infer issues with the engines. Please accept my deepest simpathy if the subject has caused you some discomfort.

BT

xl390
 

thank you all, thread ended. Mike Edwards is in his mid 80's.
His memory is not as good now. FJJP thanks. CL

Bluetail, the subject does not cause me any discomfort - the years pass and the wounds heal. I was more concerned for the families, who, hopefully, have moved on and re-built their lives without the ones they loved.

Chris, a wise decision. Mike is a fine man; I lived with his hurt at the time, the more so because there was nothing I could do for him. All I could do was to take some of the mundane chores out of Jan's hands to try to ease her pain.

RIP Chris, I remember you well, my friend...

FJJP

I was on the crew that did the Chicago display the following year. I agree that raking over the facts would achieve little,but if it is any comfort to Mr Edwards I can confirm that everybody in Chicago that met them had nothing but the highest regard for the whole crew. There was a memorial plaque to them in base ps.

Dera Chris,

I am delighted by your decision.
I was on 617 when we lost the aircraft, and it did have a profound effect on me and many others at the time.

Jamie H (the AEO) was a wonderful friend of mine.

Jamie, Mike, Simon and Chris, you were all dear friends, and I still think about you all, and the good and happy times we spent together.

RIP dear friends

Kind regards
The Swinging Monkey
'Caruthers, raise a glass to departed friends'

This accident happened many years ago and I'm only posting here in response to a recent e-mail. It was indeed a tragedy.

At the time, what was and wasn't permitted to be flown in a Vulcan relied heavily upon the 'constituted crew' principle. I ask the question, was the crew involved fully constituted or had they been crewed together on an ad hoc basis for the Glenview show? Specifically, why was the Sqn Cdr - the Nav Plotter (who wasn't in the a/c when it crashed) - on that crew for the airshow and were all the other crew members on that day the captain's regular crew members?

We did wonder at the time....

I would be interested in hearing from anyone who could shed a little more more light on this accident as over the years I have been unable to find out much about what actually happened.

Please PM me, rather than post for all to see and cause unecessary hurt for those who may still find this painful.

I am not interested in hearsay and rumour, I would only like facts.

Thank you in advance.

TF

Vulcan Crash in Glenview
 

I witnessed the crash in 1978 at GNAS.

First a little background.

Born and raised in Glenview about 2 miles south of the main runway. I always had planes flying over the house when they were doing touch and go's and such.
Every year they have an airshow in downtown Chicago, and many of the military planes would fly out of GNAS. My buddies and I would bike out to the North end of the runway, and later drive our van, and watch the practices, take-offs, landings and such. Usually an f-14 or f-15 would put on a show for us. We were VERY close to the end of the runway and it was always a thrill.

1978. I am not sure if this was the first year the Vulcan was there or not. One thing I distinctly remember is sitting at the north end of the runway where almost all the planes took off (there was open land north of the airport) and seeing the vulcan at the far end. You could always tell when they were rolling by the smoke plume, you could not hear anything. All of a sudden they would seemingly go nose up to vertical! I know I am exagerating but with the large delta wing appearing suddenly this is what it looked like. At the same moment you would hear a sound I never heard from any other plane. Almost a screaming whine. And then over our heads and off to the lakefront. Quite spectacular if I say so.

Now, back to 1978. It was August. I "believe" it was around the 25th although I am not sure. The planes had been at the base for a day or two already. The shows were on saturday and sunday, and this was thursday or friday. I was in the car with my dad and we were driving north towards the airport running an errand. I saw the vulcan fly over our car heading north on the east side of the airport. This was the normal pattern. As it got to the far eand of the airport it suddenly climbed straight up (from my vantage point behind it about 2 miles away) and banked to the left after the nose went up. The right wing turned over the left and it when inverted, nose down behind trees that were blocking my view of where it went down. To me it looked like the pilot went up and to the left in an extreme way and probably stalled. He was way too low to recover, "maybe" 300 -400 feet up.

Needless to say I was stunned. at first when I saw him climb and bank so hard I though wow..and then shock. We drove north on waukegan road about 1/2 mile east of the crash site (a garbage dump, now a golf course) and saw the smoke. It was very sad for me to see.

Of course this was along time ago and the base was closed to save money. I of course won't ever forget what I can still see when I close my eyes.

If there is any clarification you need let me know. I will do the best I can.

Jim

tfarlow

PM me please with your details

FJJP