In May 1965,
I joined Adastra as a Camera Operator. I spent a few days with
Les Sheffield learning about the various cameras; mainly the RC-9
and RC-10.
On 1st June, I carried out my first real job under the supervision
of another camera operator. We were operating in the area west
of Richmond so the sortie was carried out ex Mascot. We were in
Hudson VH-SMO. The navigator, whose name eludes me,
was operating with another navigator, due I think, to being out
of the job for a while. That first day was uneventful.
The next day, 2nd June 1965, we once again departed for the Richmond
area, this time however we were all 'solo'. When the navigator
and the pilot were satisfied that the sortie had been completed,
we headed for Mascot. Up until now the day was uneventful. Things
were about to change!!
As someone new to the flying game, having been brought up in Sydney,
I was keenly searching for places which were familiar to me. We
eventually reached Botany Bay, where we joined the downwind leg
for runway 25. At about this time, I was aware of "little white
specks" flying past the window. Having absolutely no idea what
these were, I ignored them for a minute or so. At this time, the
navigator was standing adjacent to the pilot and was unaware of
what was unravelling down the back! When I felt that I could no
longer ignore these 'things', I tapped the nav on the shoulder
and suggested to him that he might like to take a look. He casually
came back and after a moment or so told me he thought we were
on fire! He then went and informed the pilot of what we had seen.
Apparently there were no indications on the instrument panel of
a fire, so he continued the approach normally. He informed the
tower that he thought we had a problem and we were cleared to
land. By this stage, we were about halfway along the base leg.
At about the halfway point of finals, the instrument panel finally
indicated a fire so the pilot did what he had to do, setting off
the fire bottles. Shortly thereafter we touched down to an escort
of all manner of emergency vehicles which fortunately were not
needed. The hangar tug arrived and towed SMO back to the hangar.
The outcome can be a matter for someone else. Suffice it to say
that the engine suffered a fair amount of damage and SMO looked
quite forlorn sitting outside the hangar for a while with only
one engine.
Why did I turn up for work the next day after experiencing what
is after all the one thing feared most by pilots - fire? I suppose
it was the almost casual way in which the navigator and pilot
coped with the situation.
Dave Aitchison
15th January 2004
Footnote:
(RC)
The log books
for VH-SMO (later VH-AGP) are held with the aeroplane in the Australian
War Memorial in Canberra. The Aircraft Curator at the AWM confirms
that the aircraft suffered an engine fire on 2nd June 1965 (this
entry was signed by Jack McDonald). The log states that the fire
was in the port engine. The log later records that the
starboard engine was changed. The next entry in the log
is on 28th August 1965 when the fire bottles were changed (this
entry was signed by Gwyn Davies of Herald Flying Services).
Update
by Bill Mitchell (10th February 2004)
"The
aircraft involved was Lockheed Hudson VH-SMO flown by Allan Walker
and the Navigator was Jack Tierney. I spoke to Jack shortly after
the incident and Jack made it sound very amusing, although the
whole occurrence may have had a more serious outcome, but this
is what he told me. The camera op' had alerted the flight deck
to a problem by telling him that he had observed sparks flying
past the wing which he considered may be normal, but when he saw
the "Meteorites" flashing by he thought possibly there was a problem
and had initially raised the alarm. SMO had been descending into
Mascot at the time and in fact was on finals at this stage. A
little earlier, Allan had had a feeling all was not right and
had gone into Auto Rich and carried out a magneto check, but an
ignition problem was not indicated, nor were any of the other
instruments indicating anything out of the ordinary that would
be evidence of the impending peril. What was really happening
was that the starboard engine was on fire internally and was slowly
transforming the P&W Twin Wasp from a reciprocating piston engine
into a gas generator Jet engine. The fire had now consumed the
diffuser section of the engine [Hawker DeHavilland, who dismantled
the engine, reported that there was nothing left of the diffuser]
and was now starting on the induction pipes. At last the power
plant fire detectors were alerted and sent their warning signals
to the cockpit. Allan immediately released both CO2 extinguisher
bottles which put out the fire, and carried out other emergency
shut down procedures whilst completing the landing. Emergency
vehicles were standing by, ready to go into action and douse the
aircraft with foam which is a standard safety procedure. However,
Jack Tierney was able to talk the fire crew into delaying this
action and do an inspection of the fire damage instead. It was
found unnecessary to apply any further extinguishant and this
saved doing what could have been an expensive cleanup. The aircrafts
own fire extinguishers had effectively put out the engine fire,
and nothing was left but to tow SMO back to the hangar."
Update
by Allan Walker (23rd February 2004)
"It was
definitely the starboard engine which caught fire. What Bill and
Dave have said is substantially correct. It was such a long time
ago but I believe the fire started in the supercharger. The fire
was internal and it was not until an induction pipe was burnt
through that the fire detectors were set off. We had abandoned
the survey because the engine was running a little rough, but
apart from a slight split in the throttle positions (to maintain
manifold pressure) everything was normal. Probably the low power
used during the descent made it harder to identify."
So there we
have the definitive word from the man on the spot. The fire was
in the starboard engine. Allan Walker believes that had
the fire been in the port engine he would have noticed it himself
much earlier. The other man on the spot, Dave Aitchison, was initially
certain that the fire had been in the starboard engine, but "evidence"
from the aircraft log book sowed seeds of doubt. Dave, it seems
that the log book is incorrect and your memory is vindicated!
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