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View Full Version : Re: What happened to this Vulcan?


Dingo
November 8th 06, 11:21 AM
"DAN" > wrote in message
...
> Anyone knows the circumstances of this photo?
>
> Looks pretty nasty...

Could it be this one ?

http://www.thisislongford.com/heathrow.htm

On 1st October 1956, the first Avro Vulcan bomber taken on charge by the
RAF, returning from a successful flight to Australia and New Zealand,
crashed on approach to Heathrow Airport (then called London Airport). The
pilot and Air Marshall Broadhurst, who occupied the co-pilot's seat, both
survived, ejecting after the plane had struck the ground and bounced back
into the air. The 4 other occupants, including a civilian contractor, died
instantly. I have provided a link to a draft statement by the Air
Secretary, Nigel Birch, which can be viewed online here or at the Public
Records Office at Kew.

Henry J Wild, a Longford villager who moved to Canada in the 1970s,
described the incident like this:
I was standing in the farmyard when a very severe thunderstorm was
approaching with a lot of lightning and strong wind and there was a
tremendous noise and there appeared a triangular aircraft from the low
clouds, it was so low it was obvious it could not reach the runway, there
were two cracks then a loud bang as it crashed then silence, except for the
thunder. It was The Vulcan arriving from Australia non-stop, the cracks
were the ejector seats, it fell in a field of brussel sprouts about half a
mile south-west of the village, just over the river. I heard afterwards
that it was told not to land but an Air Vice Marshal aboard overruled the
advice as he wanted to be sure to meet the air ministry welcoming party: he
had also ordered the co-pilot to give him his seat so he was able to eject
when the crash came, he broke his ankle.
~
Dingo

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