Andover runway excursion at Abingdon
 

Andover C.1 XS598 of 46 Sqn had an engine problem during take-off at Abingdon on 5 July 1967 and after settling back down it ran off the end of the runway, across a road and ended up looking very sorry for itself in a field. Thankfully, although it was written-off nobody onboard was hurt. Does anyone know who the crew were?

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....44f10c660.jpeg

Mire on accident in p107 below.

http://www.edendale.co.uk/download/M...ust%201967.pdf

An impressive little aircraft, it seems.

My only encounter was a CC.2 trip from Northolt to Jersey with the RAF Pistol Team, with full silver service from the Loadies. The airmen on the Team were well impressed with the coffee pots, china and Danish pastries!!

Thanks very much ORAC

I have a photo I took of the aircraft the following day. I did hear that as it happened, a lady was pushing her mother along the road in a wheelchair. On seeing the approaching Andover, mother had the ride of her life!

Yes I heard something like that. I took a photo of it four days after the event when it was being dismantled.

This was a training flight as the aircraft was pretty new in service. The Captain was Jim if I remember correctly. Following a roller landing the aircraft became airborne but then had an auto-feather of one engine. The auto-feather system was pretty unusual on 2 engine transport aircraft of the time and was armed when the throttle was well forward (demanding power) and if a torque sensor measuring power output fell below a preset figure (ie engine failing) the auto feather system turned off the fuel, stopped the engine and feathered the big propellers to reduce drag.

Previous 2 engine transports (DC3, Valletta) were of the non group A performance types which had insufficient power to climb on one engine unless light weight so were normally relanded if any runway was available. The STOL Andover had extra power and would climb better on 1 engine than say a Valletta on 2. Sadly the auto-feather was due to a fault in the torque measuring system I understand and a nearly new fully serviceable engine and aircraft was lost. Hey Ho.

Many thanks Delboy, that is excellent extra information. Do you know Jim's surname?

Which runway was it using (or not)?

It was before my own time at Abingdon but it looks like runway 36 and it finished up across the road on the old WW2 era dispersal.

Correct, it was 36

There were 2 OCU Andovers in the circuit that day and I was in the other one (XS601) 'downwind' when XS598 went through the hedge on R/W 36. In 1967 the OCU syllabus still included a one hour sortie of co-pilot solo which is what we were doing and we had only recently got airborne. Clearly Abingdon airfield went 'Black' and we were sent to the Benson hold with strict instructions not to do anything else. Two hours later we were allowed back to Abingdon for a single landing and the trip was declared DNCO, so the sortie was re-flown the next day. And that is why Plt Off Dick Campbell-Jones got a total of 3 hours 'captain time' on the course instead of the normal 1!
PS. The student captain on XS598 was Derek Ikin (a lovely man) who had been my Flt Cdr at South Cerney and after the OCU we both went to 84 Sqn in Sharjah. Some years later we also served together on 30 Sqn at Lyneham.

Friendly Pelican 2
Good to see you are still around! Did you notice the post that gave news of Dave Martin's demise? We're getting to that age!

Thanks for all that background friendlypelican 2

The Andover always seemed to be a decent aircraft for shorter-range work, which the RAF now seems to use helicopters for and is a probably more expensive way of operating. I, like the post earlier, got a flight from Germany to the UK (Cambridge as it was a Sunday) in one of 60 Sqn’s aircraft and it was very civilised. (I know, a different fit to the standard troop-carrying C1).

I was a member of the BOI into this accident, all those years ago. Whilst I can't remember the names of the 2 pilots, the OCU istructor was a Flt Lt of huge flying experience, the student a Squadron Leader. There was NOTHING wrong with either engine (they were extensively tested by Rolls Royce). What happened was that the instructor, without checking his instruments, decided instinctively (but almost certainly mistakenly) that the a/c wasn't climbing, seized control and banged it back onto the runway - with far too little remaining tarmac. It's also true that the a/c narrowly missed a woman pushing a pram on the road. The president decided that we didn't have enough evidence to reach a firm conclusion as to the cause, though we all felt it was finger trouble on the flight deck.