ditching a large jet

[Lou Scannon]

John.
Was that aircraft the RAF Hastings that ditched very close (but not on) the Island of Gan?

I was brought up on the stories of how the pax and crew assumed the aircraft was supported by the sea bed and then it suddenly sank in many fathoms!

That was one of the cases that support my theory that the ones that get away with it are the ones in the landing configuration.

[John (Gary) Cooper]

Yes Lou the very same one, it is amazing how this story spread I personally think that it was deliberately put out by someone to take the embarrassment out of the situation. The best one that I heard is described on my website above (www) from a well respected aviation author (who too had heard this story!) where the passengers thought the aircraft had landed on the reef, they basically refused to get their feet wet until the Air Sea Rescue Launch (RTTL 2747) came up alongside where upon the pax collected their hand luggage and donned their Service Dress caps before alighting said aircraft. The aircraft, a Handley Page Hastings, stayed afloat for twenty minutes, and went down Starboard wing first, reason being that # 4 engine was the only one still attached. I have had various depths described to me that said aircraft is sitting in from 1200-8000 feet of water. The Hydrographic Office do not know the exact depth nor too does the Wrecks Officer for the RAF know where the aircraft is located.....I can tell you this though that there are two Hastings lying in that part of the oggin, one that had crashed 8 months previous to mine from the same squadron in Singapore with consecutive numbers, the other one ground looped on landing and after being stripped of its essentials was towed out to sea and dumped, this I only found out recently from someone who was on board this aircraft.