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Shackleton crash in Harris 1990
Next week on April 30th is the anniversary of a sadly fatal accident to an 8 Squadron Shackleton in Harris in 1990.
Has it been the subject of any previous discussion on Pprune? |
On 30 Apr 1990, I was attending a Flight Safety Officer's course at Adastral. During the welcome introduction, the senior officer giving the chat said "Well, it's been a good year so far, chaps, let's keep it that way. Mind you, perhaps I'd better not tempt fate - the last time I said that someone went and pranged. Anyway, enjoy the course!".
We started the course at 09:15, so it was probably at the very moment he'd been talking that WR965 Dylan crashed into the Isle of Harris at 10:37, killing the entire 10 man crew..... RIP |
When I did the SFSO course in 1992, the opening speaker made a point of not mentioning current accident rates. Enough Gods-tempting for one decade!Indeed, the course had a lot of emphasis on how you could do a perfect job as SFSO and still get screwed by the Norns.
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According to Google, they flew into a hill in Harris while reporting a position further south trying to get into Benny. Would have thought the Shackleton would have had the sort of nav equipment to make that kind of error unlikely?
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Well, I've certainly told a Shack where they were on several occasions (including in 1990), so they could tell me where I was!
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I once visited the GP surgery in Leverburgh, South Harris. He proudly displays an 8 Squadron Crest on the wall, presented to him in gratitude for help rendered at the time of the crash.
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Shackleton Loss
I was part of a 3 ship Hercules flight which was detached to Lossie for a tactical low level course on the 30th April 1990. We arrived in the afternoon after hearing of the SAROPS in the Hebrides.
We made our detached aircraft available to the Station on arrival and with the other staff crew members we flew the site guards and the BOI team into Stornoway. Each morning before carrying out the training sorties we would fly missions into Stornoway with equipment, supplies and personnel for the next 3 days. We had ex - kipper fleet crew members on the Hercs so it was harrowing for them too. R.I.P. |
Scotbill, sadly not. It was a 1950s aircraft updated with a 1940s radar and long range over ocean navigation equipment. It would have had the radar off and possibly out of Tacan range.
The only safe procedure was to remain clear of cloud or under radar control. |
This might shed some (sad) light:
ASN Aircraft accident Avro Shackleton AEW.2 WR965 Tarbert Narrative: On the morning of 30 April 1990, the crew of Shackleton AEW2 WR965 took off from RAF Lossiemouth to participate in a maritime exercise in the Benbecula area to the west of mainland Scotland. The exercise was to be in two parts with a time interval between. To make most economical use of the Shackleton's flying time it was intended to utilise the time interval to undertake some continuation training for which the crew had appropriate authorisation. Although the weather was forecast to be generally clear in the aircraft's operating area there were areas of low cloud and poor visibility over Scottish coastal areas. The first part of the sortie was completed without incident and at 09:45 UTC the crew took the opportunity to participate with a Tornado F3 in mutual training which required the Shackleton's radar to be set to standby/off. After completing this training, the crew commenced their own continuation training which was to include a visual approach to Benbecula airfield. The crew contacted Benbecula Air Traffic Control (ATC) at 10:25 UTC requesting permission for an approach, stating that they were about 20 miles west of the airfield; permission was given and Benbecula ATC passed their actual weather to the crew. Subsequent investigation determined, however, that the aircraft was actually 15 miles north of the position which it had reported at this time. At 10:30 two RAF personnel saw the Shackleton orbiting an island some 12 miles to the north of Benbecula airfield, and at 10:34 the Shackleton crew called Benbecula ATC stating that the weather was not sufficiently good for an approach and that they were turning right and climbing. At around 10:37 it struck the ground about 30 ft below the summit of an 823 ft hill on the Isle of Harris. Reliable evidence indicates that at that time and in that vicinity the cloudbase was 200 ft above mean sea level, with cloud tops at 3000 ft. At impact, the aircraft was in controlled flight with all four engines developing cruise power. CONCLUSION: "The Board of Inquiry concluded that the accident was caused because the aircraft was flown below a safe altitude in unsuitable weather conditions; the Board were unable to determine the reason for this." RIP Chas and the rest of the crew. Bloggs |
Colin Burns (co-pilot) and I were on the same flight on 90 IOT.
Wrong aircraft, wrong job, wrong place, wrong weather. Typical 'can do' RAF before integrated safety management. |
The Shack was supporting a joint maritime/air defence exercise involving Buccaneers from 12 Sqn firing TV Martel missiles at smoke floats which had been dropped by the unfortunate Shack. Once the smoke floats were in the water a Nimrod VASTAC'd the Buccs onto the target for the live firing.
All at the same time the F3's were tracking the martels to see if was possible or even likely that a cruise missle target could be engaged by the F3 system. It's not a coincidence that the Martels were being replaced by Sea Eagles at the same time as the exercise. It had been deemed that it was cheaper to fire them off into the Atlantic than to have them broken up and the nasty bits disposed of in an environmentally friendly way. I was on 12 at the time waiting for my QWI course to start, a very sad end to a jolly good jape! We lost some good lads on that one. |
There was a NE-3A supporting the exercise as well.
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However well we knew them, the aircraft was in IMC below Safety Altitude.
I was also a Flight Safety Officer in the RAF and there was much discussion around this time regarding Squadron and Station Execs flying as they were assessed as being more at risk due to being 'distracted' by their 'day' job and their flying skills being eroded by lack of practice. Safety altitudes were published in order that we didn't fly into cumulo granite in the Queen's or someone else's aluminium. RIP guys, still a sad day, whatever the cause - human or otherwise. |
OC Ops, while a qualified navigator was not qualified on the Shackleton. The 1st NAv was not navigating at the time.
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My old lead dry was on it...RIP. As I recall there was a lot of fall out regarding the way the outfit was run and the lack of oversight.
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Indeed, my vague recollection is that a few stones were turned over and the way 8 Sqn had evolved as a standalone entity was subject to criticism. Certainly key members of the normal operating crew were not at their usual stations.
Looking back, the crash reminds me of the JATE C130 low flying incident at South Cerney where there was also a view cast as to how supervision of a unique unit had diverged from the norm; excellent flight safety and flying supervision lessons that should still be taught. I've been to too many funerals brought about by pilots ramming the ground. The memorial is one of the most beautiful and fitting I know. http://www.aircrashsites-scotland.co...-moadal-40.jpg |
TOFO, was that Roger Scutt? Top bloke and I can tell you from first hand experience.
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Yep,
In the early eighties he was my lead when we went through MR2 conversion. I was second dry and third was a very good mate who went on to become a fairly controversial fast jet pilot (won't be giving any names) long since departed for the airlines. The two of us ran old Roger, and everybody else, ragged and he put up with it with immense good grace. Top bloke, sadly missed. The memorial is one of the most beautiful and fitting I know. |
The sadness of this aircraft's loss continued long afterwards.
The widow of a crew member married another RAF officer the following year. Unfortunately, he died in 1998 and so the lady's 'new life' was short. O-D |
TOFO, thank you see PM
OD, can you tell me who in PM please? |
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