ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 161650
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| Date: | Monday 29 October 1962 |
| Time: | night |
| Type: |  de Havilland DH.110 Sea Vixen FAW.1 |
| Owner/operator: | 890 Sqn FAA RN |
| Registration: | XJ562 |
| MSN: | 10044 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | HMS Ark Royal, Gulf of Aden -
 Yemen
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | HMS Ark Royal, Gulf of Aden |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
On 29/10/1962, XJ562 ("R-249"), a Sea Vixen FAW1 of 890 Sqn FAA RN, was written off when it crashed into the sea off Aden while operating off HMS Ark Royal. Both crew - Lt. G. P. Dobbie (pilot) and S. Lt. R. M. Gravestock (observer) - ejected safely.
(HMS Ark Royal had sailed from Mombasa, Kenya on 26/11/1962, arriving Gibraltar 10/12/1962)
This account below was written by Lt. G. P. Dobbie the pilot
"We were one of two aircraft launched from HMS Ark Royal to proceed to the operating area, split up and one aircraft to act as ‘bomber’ attacking the ship at low level while the second aircraft carried out an interception into a position where a Firestreak missile could be used. Roles were then reversed carrying on until it was time to return to the ship. To extend the endurance of the sortie to 1 hour 30 minutes between launch and recovery to the ship it was routine to shut one of the engines down whilst heading for the operating area. The drop tank fuel could only be extracted from the port tank with the port engine running as the fuel was forced out by air pressure from the appropriate side engine, hence the reason for changing over. When it was time to return to the ship, the dead engine was started and the approach and landing was carried out on two engines.
On this occasion the engine that was shut down could not be restarted!
The engine restart system was normally very reliable but not on this occasion.
We informed the ship of our problem and set out to carry out a single engine approach and deck landing. This again, although I had never attempted one before, should not have been too difficult. There was plenty of power to carry out the task and apart from using approx. 10% more power it should have been possible to approach and do a go around if necessary. (Go around is aborting a landing and going around again to attempt a second landing).
We were vectored to a position where we could carry out a CCA (Carrier Controlled Approach) and then experienced a dull thump as the remaining generator on the working engine failed.
This left us with very limited electrical power and following the correct drill we switched to the Emergency Battery to find the aircraft plunged into silent darkness! Reversing the switches put us back on to the normal battery giving us back light and communications but we knew this had a very short life. We increased speed so that the windmilling effect of the dead engine would at least power the good generator and charge the battery. We flew down the starboard side of the ship from the stern and then turned left into the downwind position and a further turn on to finals.
I throttled back the good engine to allow the gear and flaps down at which point we lost everything. No instruments, no communication, including intercom, complete loss of all data from the Master Reference Gyro, obviously the slower speed had stopped the windmiling dead engine from charging the generator and killed the battery, meaning we had run out of electrical power.
At this stage I told Dick Gravestock my observer to eject. Sadly he didn’t hear these words as he had already ejected! I followed immediately.
I woke up in the water, tangled up in a parachute cord and I think the parachute had sunk as my face was above the water but I was at best negatively buoyant and in the darkness, every time I took a breath I got hit in the face by a wave. I felt I was fighting a losing battle.
The parachute harness was tangled around the dinghy pack and although it was a no, no I disconnected the dinghy and tried to hang on to it as I passed it round the parachute cord, in the darkness I lost my dinghy but achieved the goal of getting rid of the tangled cord and at least I was not floating better in my life vest.
After a short time a helicopter arrived on the scene, apparently Dick had already waved them off from rescuing him as he was in his dinghy and didn’t fancy any more flying that night, so waited for rescue from a frigate nearby.
I however felt very vulnerable floating in the dark where the only thing I could see was my white feet flapping about – I had ditched my flying boots as part of the getting rid of the parachute exercise. An overriding thought kept going through my mind was that some years earlier my father told me the biggest sharks in the world hung around in the Gulf of Aden area!
The helicopter crewman lowered the wire and strap which I donned and within seconds a very relieved aviator was on his way back to the ship.”
“I was told later that my pick up by helicopter launched from a carrier at night was the first!”
Sources:
1. http://www.ukserials.com/losses-1962.htm
2. http://web.archive.org/web/20120622210245/http://www.ejection-history.org.uk:80/Aircraft_by_Type/SeaVixen.htm
3. http://web.archive.org/web/20170718032515/http://www.millionmonkeytheater.com:80/SeaVixen.html
4. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/_DH110%20prodn%20list.txt
5. [LINK NOT WORKING ANYMORE:http://www.seavixen.org/squadrons/correlation-squadrons-ships/890-sqn-to-hms-ark-royal-1961-1963]
6. http://www.axfordsabode.org.uk/pdf-docs/arkroy16.pdf
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 24-Oct-2013 00:51 | Dr. John Smith | Added |
| 21-Jul-2023 16:46 | Anon. | Updated |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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