Stephen Morrin has posted this photo of BMA - British Midland Airways V.813 series Viscount G-AZLR taken at Elmdon, Birmingham, West Midlands, England 19 January 1973. G-AZLR suffered a landing accident at Elmdon, Birmingham, West Midlands, England during a positioning flight from Yeadon, Leeds/Bradford Airport, Yorkshire, England. As the aircraft touched down the port main undercarriage collapsed and the aircraft skidded along the runway and slewed off to the left, onto the grass. The tail of the aircraft was close to the runway which prevented other aircraft from using it. There was no post-crash fire. Fortunately there were no passengers on board and the two pilots plus a positioning Captain were all unhurt. After an extensive investigation it was determined that the port undercarriage leg was not properly locked down, which showed up in the cockpit but no blame was attached to the crew as they had noted the unsafe cockpit light and checked the port wing indicator before they landed which showed that it was in the safe position. The mechanical indicator on the port wing had frozen solid overnight at Leeds and broke when the undercarriage was retracted, thus giving false information to the crew. The aircraft returned to service after repairs, which took approximately two weeks including replacing the two shockloaded Dart engines. Will Blunt collections photo shows the aircraft just after the landing incident. This V.813 series Viscount was built for SAA - South African Airways as ZS-CDU and first flew on Tuesday, 14 October 1958 at Hurn, Bournemouth, Hampshire, England powered by Rolls-Royce Dart 525 engines. During its life it was also owned and/or operated by Cyprus Airways, and BMA - British Midland Airways. Its fate:- Withdrawn from service by BMA - British Midland Airways at East Midlands Airport, Castle Donington, Leicestershire, England in June 1983. Noted minus its tail, outer wings and Dart engines being used as a cabin services trainer in June 1985. Noted still in existence 9 July 1990. The final fate of this fuselage is not known. Click on this link to see the history and 13 photos of this Viscount. vickersviscount.net/Index/VickersViscount347History.aspx The Vickers Viscount Network is always on the lookout for more photos and information to help complete the histories of every Viscount built. If you can help please contact us by Facebook, Twitter or email. Your help will be really appreciated with this important historical project.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 09:27:33 +0000
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