ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 172529
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| Date: | Sunday 25 August 1946 |
| Time: | 23:59 |
| Type: |  Avro Lancaster Mk I |
| Owner/operator: | 35 (Madras Presidency) Sqn RAF |
| Registration: | TW870 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 7 |
| Other fatalities: | 4 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Gander, NL -
 Canada
|
| Phase: | Approach |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | |
| Gander, Newfoudnland |
Fate of Lancaster B.Mk.1 TW870 "TL-R" of 35 Squadron, RAF:
August 25, 1946 is a date that recalls very painful memories for some people in Newfoundland. Some of the people to whom I refer are Gander residents. A squadron of Lancaster Bombers of Royal Air force Bomber Squadron No. 35, took off for a routine operation. Shortly after takeoff one of the bombers reported an unserviceable compass and was authorized to return and land on runway 14. It succeeded in land on what is now runway 13. It was then designated runway 14 and approximately 3,000 feet shorter than it is today. There were no barriers around the airport. As a matter of face, people regularly walked across runway 14 as a shortcut from the American side to the Canadian side. The perimeter road was so close to the ends of the runways that a system of lights and bells were erected to warn pedestrians and vehicles. The warning system was activated by the control tower a few minutes prior to the arrival of aircraft. The idea was to prevent traffic from travelling on the road until the aircraft had landed. This work well in normal situations, however, when an aircraft departed and had to return immediately, there was not sufficient time for the warning system to be effective.
A group of people had gathered near the end of runway 14, watching a squadron of military aircraft depart. Some of the people were on their way home from the United Church evening service. Fifteen year old Trixie Burton (Trixie Smith of Cotton Street, Gander), was hold the hand of her friend, 21 year old, Isola Clarke. They were look toward the runway. They heard nothing behind them – no noise, no gushing of wind, no aircraft engines – nothing! Then, suddenly, Miss Clarke was struck from behind by a propeller of the large Lancaster and killed immediately. It was dark and the controllers in the tower didn’t realize what had happened. They saw the aircraft brake sharply and do, what appeared to be, a ground loop. A ground loop is an uncontrolled turn of approximately 180 degrees. The control tower call the aircraft several times but received no reply. The aircraft, TW870, - not to be confused with Trans World airlines – landed at 2359 Greenwich mean time.
Three other people were also killed. They were Raymond Parsons, 20, who had just completed two years of pre-med at Memorial College, Cyril Brazil, 27, and 57 year old Stanley Rideout, all from St. John’s. William J. Mcdonald of St. Mary’s was among several others who were injured. None of the people gathered around had heard any indication of the approaching disaster.
The fact that they heard nothing can be partly explained by the fact that aircraft land into the wind, i.e. facing the wind. The people who were standing near the end of runway 14 watching aircraft departing from that runway meant that the wind was blowing toward their faces.
They would hear the noises in front of them but not behind them. Something else that added to the cause of the accident was the fact the aircraft did not use its landing lights. This may have been because the crew was too occupied to turn them on or may be as a result of the habit of the night-flying pathfinder squadron during the war. Those aircraft regularly landed and took off without the use of their landing lights.
Leo Fowler of Fraser Road, Gander, was the ambulance driver for the Sir Frederick Banting Memorial Hospital. He remembers vividly the carnage of deal and broken bodies. It was his job to carry the injured and the dead to the hospital. One of the most difficult things to accomplish was to find someone with the nerve to help him carry the stretcher carrying the body parts.
The accident was report to Sgt. Clarke, who was in charge of the Gander branch of the Newfoundland Constabulary. He ordered airport officials to close the runway pending an investigation. A magisterial inquiry, presided over by the late Beaton J. Abbott, was conducted but the results of the inquiry were never made public by the government of the day.
The Lancaster Bomber was placed in hangar 8, located on the south side of runway 14. Hangar 8 was located approximately where the international terminal is now. It is believed that the aircraft was stored because of the fact that it could have been needed in a subsequent investigation. The hanger was not secured and the aircraft was vandalized and stripped of everything that could be moved – even to the rudder cables.
In the heavy landing at Gander, the aircraft suffered damage to the centre section and undercarriage and was declared Cat AC on 29.8.46. In the event, probably due to cost and difficulty of repairs on site at Gander, and the large number of spare Lancasters in store, TW870 was re-categorised to Cat E and struck off charge on 31.10.46.
It remained virtually derelict at Gander until October 1950 when it was sold as scrap to Hercules Sales of Toronto, then to Freight Lift Inc (Doug Siple/Don McVicar). After the minimum work necessary, the aircraft was flown from Gander to Dorval (the engineer who rebuilt the Lancaster flew as flight engineer on the trip via Summerside to Dorval. He records that he didn’t have much to do ‘as vandals had stolen most of the instruments’). At Dorval it was converted to become a fuel tanker, including the fitting of a streamlined nose section (this nose cone had once been part of Trans Canada Airlines Lancaster X Passenger Plane KB702/CF-CMT, and had been used as a chicken coup after CF-CMT was scrapped. It was rescued, cleaned up and fitted to TW870!) The plane was then transferred to World Wide Aviation. On 6.5.52 it was registered as CF-GBA and moved to Seven Islands, Quebec where it was used to transport fuel to the outposts of the Iron Ore Company of Canada. On one of these flights the pilot, Capt AR Iba, lost control during an overweight landing in a crosswind on a gravel airstrip at Menihek, and the Lancaster hit a rock pile, caught fire and was burnt out. Both crew members were unhurt. The manifest showed a load of 2,150 gallons of diesel, 300 gallons of petrol and 800 gallons of Avgas
Sources:
1. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J. Halley, Air Britain,1985 p.54)
2. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cannf/ct_news_lancasterbomb.htm
3. https://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/488306-world-wide-airways.html#post7274002
4. https://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/410951-operation-goodwill-1946-merged.html
5. http://www.bombercommandmuseum.ca/lanccanadian.html
6. http://www.ganderairporthistoricalsociety.org/_html_4658/lancaster_tragedy.htm
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 28-Dec-2014 02:40 | Dr. John Smith | Added |
| 04-Jun-2015 17:40 | Angel dick one | Updated [Time, Operator] |
| 18-Sep-2022 05:08 | Ron Averes | Updated [Location] |
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