Avro Vulcan near crash landing

ADDITIIONAL TO VID BY TWEETINGSPARROW WITH SAME TITLE (loved your RNZAF Vampire vid by the way) These photos show the actual crash landing half an hour later at Ohakea further North on the West coast. You can see the aircraft slewed left of the runway as the wing went down.

The incident at Wellington was caused by strong crosswinds (commom problem there) drifting the aircraft left and the undercarriage hit the soft ground at touch down. This was in 1959. In 1956 (I think) AVM Broadhurst had flown a 'world tour' in a Vulcan (XA897- see youtube)) and there was a reception waiting for them at London Airport on their return. The vis was appalling and they were recommended to divert. 'It was rumoured' that the AVM didn't want to miss the reception and the aircraft captain demurred and they ended up hitting the undershoot quite hard and doing a lot of damage. As with the Wellington incident, the gear punched through the tanks but the fuel ignited and they were brought down. The back seaters were killed as they had no seats but the two cocpit crew ejected at low level.

Incidently, the three V bombers, Vulcan, Victor and Valiant, all had the same layout, two pilots in bang seats and three behind facing backwards with only rapidly inflating wedge shaped bags to throw them towards the hatch, i.e. swivel, aim at the hatch, pull the lever, zap, hope the aim was good.

'The story goes' that the back seaters in New Zealand, having in mind the London events, put the pins in the pilots seats to 'help them with their decision making' after the captain jettisoned the cockpit canopy before landing at Ohakea (as you can see in one of the pictures).

The aircraft was repaired and flown home in 1960. The electronics housing on the top of the fin had to be removed to get it out of the hangar.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Avro
• Vulcan
• emegenct
• landing
• crash
• New
• Zealand
• Ohakea
• XH498
• XA897
• London

[Joeaviation1712]

@IHePtiC The one you saw today is XH558, it flew over York on its way to Scotland for the last display of the year. XH558 is the only airworthy Vulcan left in the world.

[IHePtiC]

@Joeaviation1712 Yes as i saw it today flying over crayke in north yorkshire. the pilot lives in crayke.

Hope this helped :)

[Joeaviation1712]

XH498, is this Vulcan still around today or has it been scrapped? Would be nice to know, thanks

[2012listo]

I was @ 9 when I watched the AV go down in glenview, illinois. I will forever remember exactly what I saw, regretfully. RIP, all pilots and crew what die in flight.

[BRABAZON49]

I saw this Vulcan crash land at Ohakea in 1959. My Dad and I were standing beside the air base fence [amongst what seemed liked thousands of other spectators] when it made a low flight over the field, ditching its flight deck canopy as it flew by. The LH undercarriage was obviously damaged and the arrival of fire trucks/tenders really indicated an emergency! It then landed to our left and skidded along the grass, coming to a stop directly in front of us. It was a spectacular sight. Tks 4 photos.