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Whisky Echo
Posted: 14 Jun 2009, 12:26
by speedbird591
I bought this photo on eBay. It's not the most pleasant of subjects but I thought it a very striking and emotive photograph. It was 1968, a couple of years before I joined BOAC, but it was still a very vivid event within the community. Whisky Echo suffered an engine failure after take off and No. 2 engine fell from the wing, which was completely ablaze. The Captain brought the fully laden aircraft back to touch down within three and a half minutes from take-off. Only five people lost their lives, including a stewardess who was awarded a posthumous George Cross for bravery. Incredibly, the nose of the aircraft was salvaged and used on a TWA 707 whose nose had been destroyed by a bomb in Damascus during a hijacking. That aircraft later went to PanAm as N706PA.
Re: Whisky Echo
Posted: 14 Jun 2009, 12:44
by Garry Russell
Very sad Ian
I well remember that happenning. There a few pics on Airliners.net showing the burned out wreckage :-(
Garry
Re: Whisky Echo
Posted: 14 Jun 2009, 12:52
by Nigel H-J
I had also read the account of this tragic episode and the captain was commended for his handling of the aircraft.
The Cabin Crew are very much the unsung heroes when it comes to a survivable crash for they are the ones' who remain calm and collective whilst ensuring the safe evacuation of their passengers regardless of the dangers faced.
Nigel.
Re: Whisky Echo
Posted: 14 Jun 2009, 12:57
by Techy111
There is a good book about Flight 712 that i recently read....amazing story...
http://www.pilotfriend.com/disasters/crash/boac712.htm
The young co-pilot went on to become a senior Concorde captain if memory serves...?
Tony
Re: Whisky Echo
Posted: 14 Jun 2009, 13:03
by Garry Russell
JC Hutchinson..is that the same guy who as a Concorde pilot used to commentate and appear on BBC back in the eighties/nineties?, even doding broadcasts from display Concordes he was flying.
GArry
Re: Whisky Echo
Posted: 14 Jun 2009, 13:05
by Techy111
Yup...I think this is him on the Concorde flight with Noel Edmonds....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZzMlL88Ytg
Tony
Re: Whisky Echo
Posted: 14 Jun 2009, 19:36
by cstorey
The really sad thing about that disaster was that IIRC it was needless. After the fire, there was a failure to shut off the HP fuel cock to the failed engine , as a result of which the fire spread to the whole wing , and later after landing allowed a pool of fuel to gather beneath the aircraft and be ignited