Posted on 07/26/2004 10:07:58 PM PDT by Brian Allen
Captain Ian Harvey, who has died aged 83, was awarded a George Medal for saving the lives of 27 passengers when he made a masterly landing after a bomb had exploded in the rear of his airliner.
Harvey was the pilot of a British European Airways (BEA) Vickers Viking airliner which took off from Northolt for a flight to Paris on April 13 1950. Over the English Channel, there was a loud explosion in the rear of the aircraft, which the flight crew initially thought had been caused by a lightning strike. On investigation, the second pilot, Frank Miller, found the stewardess seriously injured; large holes had been torn in the rear fuselage of the aircraft.
The explosion had distorted the aircraft's fin and tailplane assembly, rendering the rudder useless and damaging the elevators. As a result, Harvey had only marginal control of the aeroplane, and he decided to return to Northolt to attempt a landing.
By this time night had fallen. Despite his efforts, and the assistance of his second pilot, he was unable to land the aircraft at the first attempt and was forced to overshoot. For his second attempt, Harvey decided to make a very long, low, flat approach, using the power of the engines to adjust his rate of descent; on this occasion he was successful.
Examination of the Viking revealed that an explosion had occurred in the rear lavatory; two large holes had been blown on either side of the fuselage, one measuring five feet by eight feet and the other only slightly smaller. The flying controls had also been severely damaged. Harvey's fellow pilots were full of admiration for the outstanding skill and airmanship that had undoubtedly saved the lives of his passengers and crew. It was also a testimony to the sturdy airframe of the Viking, which was a descendant of the Wellington bomber.
Five weeks after the incident, it was announced that Harvey had been awarded the George Medal. The citation referred to his "extreme coolness" as he regained control of the aircraft. "It required all the strength of the pilot, coupled with superb skill, before the Viking was landed successfully without injury to any of the passengers.
"In the face of this very grave emergency, the action of Captain Harvey is worthy of the highest praise. The complete loss of the aircraft and all its company was avoided only as a result of his courage, high skill and presence of mind." The Flight Safety Foundation of the United States later presented Harvey and his crew with a prestigious award.
The report of the official inquiry confirmed that a bomb had exploded in the lavatory, but no evidence of detonators or bomb fragments was found. The police investigation apparently failed to disclose either the motives for the attack or the person responsible. The material relating to the incident in the Public Records Office is not due for release for some years.
Ian Richard Harvey, the son of Lt Herbert Harvey, of the Royal Scots, was born at Bristol on October 13 1920. After attending Cotham School, Bristol, he was employed as an engineer by the city council. In 1938 he joined the Territorial Army, enlisting in the Royal Artillery.
In early 1940 he accompanied his battery to France, and was heavily engaged in the fighting following the German Blitzkrieg. With a good command of the French language, he often acted as interpreter for his commanding officer.
With the fall of France, Harvey was evacuated from the beaches at Dunkirk. His mother, who was a senior officer in the St John Ambulance Brigade, and who had just rescued a German bomber crew from their crashed aircraft, did not hear of his survival for many days, and assumed that her son had been killed or captured.
Harvey transferred to the RAF in 1941 for aircrew duties. After completing his initial training, he departed for the United States, where he joined, under the "Arnold Scheme", a pilot-training programme. He was awarded his pilot's wings and commissioned as a pilot officer before returning to England to convert to the Lancaster bomber. In June 1943 he joined No 106 Squadron, based near Newark.
Harvey began bombing operations over Germany in the summer of 1943 and flew continuously until the next spring. This period was the most intense of the strategic bombing offensive and saw the beginning of the so-called Battle of Berlin, when losses reached their height. Harvey and his crew were the first in No 106 for 18 months to complete a full tour of 30 operations.
On one occasion, Harvey had just begun his bombing run to the target when his Lancaster was attacked by two night-fighters. Displaying superb skill, he avoided the fighters and successfully bombed his target. On another occasion, when his aircraft was attacked by a Junkers 88 night-fighter, he manoeuvred his heavy bomber so as to enable his two gunners to shoot down the enemy aircraft.
He was awarded a DFC for "his skill, courage and determination, which have been outstanding". The citation also highlighted the "coolness" that was to be so evident during his handling of the Viking incident six years later.
Harvey left the RAF in 1946 to join BEA. After flying the Viking and the Viscount, he converted to jet aircraft, and was a captain in BEA's Comet fleet. He then transferred to the Trident, and became a training captain at the time when simulators were first being introduced.
After nearly 30 years' service with the airline, Harvey retired in June 1975. A highly professional and utterly reliable pilot, he rarely spoke of his achievements.
Harvey retained his interest in aviation. He was a keen supporter of the Aircrew Association and of the No 106 Squadron Association, and remained in close contact with many of his friends at BEA. He also gave active support to the RNLI, rarely missing the annual flag days when he stood all day shaking his tin.
Ian Harvey, who died on July 11, was twice married. He is survived by his second wife, and by a son from his first marriage and two stepdaughters.
Per Adua Ad Astra!
Blessings -- Brian
ping
I'll Fly Away
Alison Krauss. Gillian Welch
Some bright morning when this life is o'er,
I'll fly away;
To that home on God's celestial shore,
I'll fly away (I'll fly away).
Chorus:
I'll fly away, Oh Glory
I'll fly away; (in the morning)
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,
I'll fly away (I'll fly away).
When the shadows of this life have gone,
I'll fly away;
Like a bird from these prison walls I’ll fly,
I'll fly away (I'll fly away).
Chorus:
I'll fly away, Oh Glory
I'll fly away; (in the morning)
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,
I'll fly away (I'll fly away).
Oh how glad and happy when we meet
I’ll fly away
No more cold iron shackles on my feet
I’ll fly away.
I'll fly away, Oh Glory
I'll fly away; (in the morning)
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,
I'll fly away (I'll fly away).
Chorus:
I'll fly away, Oh Glory
I'll fly away; (in the morning)
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,
I'll fly away.
Just a few more weary days and then,
I'll fly away;
To a land where joys will never end,
I'll fly away.
Chorus:
I'll fly away, Oh Glory
I'll fly away; (in the morning)
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,
I'll fly away (I'll fly away)...
#3: Thanks for that.
Unlike Earth people, we already blessed aviators don't have to die to go to Heaven, that's for sure!
Per adua ad astra -- Brian
Thanks for the ping.
Captain Harvey flew some of the finest aircraft ever built -- back in the days before the brits regulated themselves out of the aeroplane business and on the road to rapidly-degenerating, third-world-savage over-run, socialist Hell.
Apart from being my first international command, the Comet was the first jet transport ever built and its subsequent experiences and testing taught us more about aeronautical engineering than we were to learn until decades later when Dutch engineers anticipated -- and actual DC-10 experience retroactively caught us up with -- large aircraft "pressure-vessel" problems. And then there was [And still bloody aught to be!] the truly magnificent Concorde!
That the Comet was perhaps the finest aircraft of its type ever built is reflected in the fact that 60-years on a version of it is still being manufactured!
Blessings -- Brian
They were indeed over-budget and doomed never to be an economic success, but that doesn't mean that they weren't 'truly magnificent' aircraft - they were. As also was the Comet. This is scarcely the eccentric opinion you appear to believe it to be.
A old BOAC friend who flew the Comet had exactly opposite views of yours regarding its airworthiness. Didn't they pull its certificate of airworthiness for metal fatigue around the windows couple of times?
De Havilland made fantastic changes for the air world but I think Boeing was the company who proved jet airliners were in fact a good idea.
If you can find it, read the story/report of the C5 that crash landed in Vietnam about 1974 with all the babies on board. Its damage was almost if not more servere when its door blew off. Although the pilots had no controls aft, they kept their heads and were able to put it down with many survivors although many were sadly lost when they barely missed clearing a rice paddy dike. According to the flight simulators, the aircraft was unflyable but they still made a controlled decent.
I think they lost two or three of them due to metal fatigue in the cabin itself. It had the same problem as the Aloha Airlines 737 except more servere as the aircraft basically disintergrated in flight.
Ping
<< A old BOAC friend who flew the Comet had exactly opposite views of yours regarding its airworthiness. Didn't they pull its certificate of airworthiness for metal fatigue around the windows couple of times? >>
Two early Comet Ones were lost to metal fatigue due to the corners of square windows fairly rapidly fatiguing and the resulting explosive decompression causing catastrophic airframe failure.
The type was grounded and the Comet Two was returned to service with round windows but although its pilots became pretty attached to it, it never regained favor with the PAX and then lost the race to the heavily-military-development-US-feral-gummint-subsidised Boeing-bet-the-company 707.
Dehavilland, which, bear in mind, had developed the Comet both under the beginnings of the ridiculous British body of regulation which quickly killed the British aircraft industry, until then the manufacturer of many very fine aeroplanes [Although you'd probably not be surprised at how many of Boeing's, Lockheed;s Douglas's and McDonnell-Douglas's engineers have spoken and still speak with British accents] and without the massive effective-subsidies and "ExIm Bank" financing packages that have always boosted Boeing had built a magnificent pioneering aeroplane and certainly one that I will always be proud to have been associated with. [And to not detract a scrap from the B-707 family of aircraft]
The British Aerospace Nimrod Maritime Patrol/Anti-Submarine Aircraft is effectively still being manufactured and is still one of the finest aircraft of its type in the world. When one considers that its ancestor Comet One was a 1940s design aeroplane one's hat must be off to Messrs DeHavilland.
For whom, by the way, for many reasons and not least that I ab-initio trained and first-solo'd in a DH-82 "Tiger," carried out Australia's last legal aerial-spraying work with one -- and through the every-bit-as-adrenaline-fueled intervening years pretty much "flew the DeHavilland [And DHC] fleet" -- I will always have a soft spot -- and an enormous professional respect!
Blessings -- Brian
[PS -- Gunna be by your corner of God's-Own in late Sept!]
I love that song.
.... last legal DH-82 "Tiger Moth" aerial-spraying work, that is.
Been a few million acres sprayed in Aus -- quite a few hundred thousand of them by me -- since then. [1965]
When you get onto CONUS be sure to email and call us.
http://www.smsu.edu/folksong/maxhunter/1194/
Here is a Real Audio version sung by Ollie Gilbert
C5 Galaxy Crash - Operation Babylift
___________________________________________________
Flying the first mission of Operation Babylift, the evacuation of Vietnamese orphans, a C5-A had its controls damaged after the accidental loss of part of the rear doors shortly after take-off from Tan Son Nhut AB on April 4th, 1975. Attempting to make an emergency landing, the aircraft crashed, killing 155 of the 314 people on board. Security forces were then set up to supervise the following evacuations.
Capt. John T. Langford of 1936 Northwood Drive, and Capt. Keith D. Malone of 504 Walnut Ave. were two of the survivors on a list released in 1975 at Travis AFB, where the ill-fated C5 Galaxy was based. Phil Wise was one of the 2 survivors from the rear cargo area of the C-5A . At Tan Son Nhut he was asked to accompany the first Babylift flight to the US.When the
cargo doors opened he saw a crew member who was hurt,went to help him and then remembers nothing else until 2 days later.
His survival is a true miracle and a testimony to faith and the human spirit.
Charles R. Work is a partner in the Regulation & Government Affairs Department, resident in McDermott, Will & Emery's Washington, D.C. office and also was appointed by the United States District Court as guardian ad litem of the Vietnamese orphans who survived a plane crash in Saigon in 1975. He is currently on the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Legal Foundation.
There were approximately6 40 orphan survivors of the C5 Galaxy crash.
Read more about Safi's story . Excerpt: "Tragically, this was to be an ill fated trip. Soon after take off from Tan Son Nhut Airport, the plane crashed in a rice field. Many of the babies and care workers were killed outright. I was lucky. I was placed on the upper deck in the troop compartment, and survived. "
Also on the web is Kelly's story. An American adopted Vietnamese now living in Seattle who also survived the C5 Crash.
For more info email info@adoptedvietnamese.org
Also try VAN as they have some contacts of the people who survived Operation Babylift .
A message from Susan McDonald
In early April 2002 we had a Memorial Service at the C5A crash site, the accident that resulted in deaths of 78 orphans, some of their caregivers (including my friends, and some of the children I had cared for). Every April 4 for the past several years we have gone to a site where
much of the plane came to a stop. (The debris field was 5 miles+, I believe.)
Hai, our English speaking guide was with the tour for the first time, so went the night before the service to make sure it where the crash site was.
Persons living at the nearby hamlet assured him it was the place.
During the service, an old gentleman from the hamlet brought us a piece of the C5A plane, which looks like it may have been insulation--flat and stained on one side, aluminum insulation sort of material on the inside. This piece was somewhat smaller than a card table.
Those who survived and might want to find out more about survivors and the wreckage that was collected for memorial purposes can contact Susanmcdo@aol.com
http://www.darlo.tv/indigo/VVc5.html
Those pilots trying to fly the damaged C5 never gave up until the aircraft actually made contact with the ground. The only way they could turn the aircraft was the use of spoilers on the wings. The up and down was controled only my applying and reducing thrust. According to people flying a simulator with the same damage programed in, the plane should have gone down out of control. Even though there was a tremendous loss of life on the aircraft during the landing, they should be give credit of saving the lives of everyone that survived.
I remember seeing this on the news when it happened. There was an older woman who was so happy when they were getting the babies out of the country to safety. However, they showed her again after news of the crash had reached Saigon. That has got to be one of the saddest things I have ever witnessed in my life. I will never forget the look of grief on that poor womans face as they were bringing in the dead and injured babies.
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