Of 152 Handley Page Hastings constructed, only two aircraft crashed/ditched into the sea, with no loss of life and no serious injuries. One aircraft a C-1 TG579 of 48 Squadron RAF Changi came to grief just off RAF Gan in the Maldives in 1960, this is well documented on other pages on this site. There appears to be very little known regarding the other Hastings a C-1 TG613 from 99 Squadron Madras Presidency Squadron from RAF Lyneham which met its end in the Mediterranean on 22nd July 1953 in somewhat dramatic style, making the TG579 episode look like a picnic in comparison!

TG613 had previously taken off from Lyneham en route to Castel Benito (Idris) in Libya with a Senior Engineering Officer, Air Commodore Moreshead and other staff from Transport Command Headquarters on board, a total of 9 passengers and 7 crew members, including an additional Flight Engineer plus two spare Hercules piston engines as replacements for two that had gone unserviceable on another Hastings stranded at RAF Habbaniya in Iraq, the aircraft was approaching its All Up Weight (AUW) of 80000lbs.with other cargo on board.

The SEO and his staff were on a visit to inspect Staging Posts and other Technical Units of the Middle and Far East Air Forces. The events that follow are bizarre to say the least as up to this accident Bristol Hercules engines had a habit of oil gulping with the loss of all oil through the breathing system but as each engine was dependent on oil from its own tank, the loss of more than one engine would be considered almost unheard of as oil unlike fuel could not be transferred from one tank to another. Most four engined aircraft were quite capable of flying on 3 engines with one propeller feathered putting the faulty engine at rest.

At 0700hrs GMT TG613 departed Castel Benito heading towards Cyprus on the second leg of its journey to cruise at 9000ft. At 0820hrs at a position 180 miles NNE of Castel Benito and 200 miles SE of Malta the two inner engines failed and both propellers were feathered, a radio distress message was transmitted at 0822hrs, the captain Flight Lieutenant Wright immediately changed course to head for Benina, Benghazi, Libya which was the next available airfield along the North African coast. Within four minutes of the first two engines failing, number one engine port outer failed and the propeller was feathered, there was no alternative but to ditch the aircraft in the sea as flying on one engine with a maximum AUW could not be sustained.

Whilst the crew remained in the cockpit area, the Navigator and spare Flight Engineer were ordered to the passenger compartment to prepare for ditching, whilst the crew continued to send Mayday messages, all available fuel was jettisoned to reduce the risk of fire and explosion. Passengers and crew all donned Mae Wests and each of the emergency exits were removed for quick escape purposes. Within eight minutes of first having diagnosed engine trouble the aircraft impacted the water where upon both wings and the tailplane were ripped off.

Somehow the Air Quartermaster, who was at the AQM station on the Flight Deck managed to scramble over the freight and like the other passengers were able to exit the aircraft through the port parachute door and fuselage hatches, whereupon the freight moved and jammed up against the door leading to the flight deck, the crew of two pilots, signaller and flight engineer vacated the cockpit by exiting through the astrodome hatch on the top of the fuselage. The order of evacuation was pilot, co-pilot, engineer and air signaller I understand that the Air Signaller a Flight Lieutenant Pearce was still connected by his communication lead and somehow this had wrapped around his neck and impeded his immediate exit. Bearing in mind that the aircraft had filled up with water almost immediately and from the time of impact to disappearing below the waves only 90 seconds had elapsed!

There are many similarities now regarding TG613 and TG579. A passenger threw a J4 dinghy that was stowed by the main door into the sea where the passengers and crew were. Fortunately, as the wings became detached from the fuselage the 4 wing dinghies inflated as they were designed to do and the passengers and crew made there way to these dinghies for safe refuge. Two of the wing dinghies became unusable, one having sustained a huge rip in the floor, whilst another had a leak from the air chamber. Three of the four wing dinghies were eventually retrieved, a roll call was organised within the dinghies and all 16 on board were accounted for, those that had suffered cuts and bruises were attended to with emergency medical equipment on board the dinghies.

Balers and sponges were used to remove the excess water from the dinghies and a radio transmitter was attempted to be erected via a kite but due to wind velocity below 7 knots this was not achieved.

Two twin engined Grumman SA-16A Albatross amphibian aircraft were dispatched from the large USAF Wheelus airbase near Tripoli in a search and rescue mission , this was the C Flight aircraft of the 7th Air Rescue Squadron. One aircraft arrived on the horizon at 1200hrs GMT and saw the discharge not of the two star red distress flares that had been fired but the smoke from the cartridges and flew over the dinghies, within a very short period of time this aircraft dropped a two way portable VHF radio by parachute. Contact between the Albatross and the survivors was established and they were advised that a destroyer HMS Barfleur had been dispatched from Malta to pick up the survivors.

The survivors were advised that the if the destroyer had not arrived by sundown , a Grumman Albatross would alight upon the water and pick them up rather than the possibility of losing sight of the dinghies in darkness. This appeared less likely as the swell was by this time 15-20 feet, a second Albatross arrived on the scene together with a USN Lockheed P2V-7 Neptune and a RAF Avro Lancaster carrying five Lindholme survival canisters, these were dropped nearby, later three of the five canisters were retrieved. Later a further Lancaster arrived on the scene with an Airborne Lifeboat but this was not dropped as a further Albatross managed to land at 1530hrs to pick up the survivors, they all stayed on board the Albatross until the arrival of HMS Barfleur, which was guided in by a further Lancaster discharging flares at 2200hrs when they were transferred to the destoyer. The Albatross however could not take off until the next morning due to the huge swell, in the meantime the destroyer stood by the Albatross overnight in case of a further emergency! The Albatross managed the extremely hazardous lift off to return to Wheelus AFB on the morning of the 23rd July. The destroyer returned to Malta with the survivors and arrived at 2100hrs, the survivors were all returned to RAF Lyneham by air on 25th July.

To summarise: From 9000ft to hitting the water eight minutes had elapsed, three engines had failed, the wings and tailplane were torn off, the freight shifted blocking the crews exit to the easier escape route through the passenger compartment, 90 seconds after impact the fuselage had disappeared below the waves. These guys were extremely lucky! In the case of TG579 we know that the aircraft was vacated within one minute, I recall being the third person out of the parachute door within 45 seconds and that was after I put a Mae West on!

Of the nine passenger seats on TG613 all were seats normally fitted to Avro York aircraft, when 613 impacted the water all nine seats broke free and ended up among the freight, thankfully all were rearward facing seats which undoubtedly saved those passengers from very serious injuries.

I havent seen the Form A1180 Official Accident Report on this incident but much of the above information was given to me by Chris Charland to whom I am deeply indebted. If there is anyone who can throw any light on to this crash please get in touch with me.

Technical problems:

Much information has come in regarding recycled oil that the RAF used in their aircraft engines at about this time, it is this that has given theories to engine oil gulping where the whole of the oil capacity within the oil tank is discharged through the engine breathers, eventually leading to no oil for lubrication purposes, friction builds up resulting in the loss of power from that engine. I have already mentioned that there is no way that oil could be transferred from one engine to another therefore in such circumstances that engine becomes isolated. It is known at about this time in the early 1950s that there was an ongoing problem with Bristol Hercules gulping oil, I can only recall one incident of this happening on a Hastings aircraft and the resultant mess was apparent for all to see!

On TG613 we know that both inboard engines were isolated and the propellers feathered, it is also thought that Number 1 engine had an overspeeding propeller and that too had to be feathered, it is also known that one Hastings crashed as a result of an overspeeding propeller, which flew off and hit the fuselage. It is hard to believe that three engines, independent of each other, should fail within a period of four minutes of the first such failure. Some analysts have stated that the engineering team were on board 613 to ascertain the problems of oil gulping first hand, well if this was the resultant cause, they then had first hand knowledge of this and ironically were the first passengers to lose at least three engines on a single leg of a journey flying in a Hastings and ending up in the sea!

In 1953 I had just turned 14 years of age, I was mad keen on flying in whatever aircraft I could go up in, my father Flight Sergeant Joe Cooper was stationed at RAF Lyneham and was in charge of Aircraft Servicing Flight (ASF), and as long as I wore an Air Training Corps uniform I could fly in almost any type that wasnt leaving the shores of the UK. As the Handley Page Hastings aircraft was the dominant transport aircraft this would be the type I would often fly in. I recall the discussion my father had with me after TG613 crashed as it was still school holidays when my flying activities took place, and he asked me if I still wanted to fly in those aircraft? This was not a problem to me then, I also recall how after the Board of Inquiry had convened and the result was announced as to what caused this accident, well like all other RAF accidents this would have been subjected to the thirty year rule applying on all aircraft crashes and I recall him saying this was as a result of the wrong type of oil being put into the engine oil tanks at Castel Benito. As I recall the incident at that time some local labourer at CB filled up the engine oil tanks with Oil Mineral Detergent (OMD) this was a flushing oil used to thoroughly cleanse every working part of an internal combustion engine and was only used during major engine servicing. Detergent oil would rid the inner workings of all of the impurities within the engine, it was a cleansing agent and under pressure and heat would cause frothing and under prolonged use would overheat the engine and the oil would be exuded through the breathing system. Oil Mineral was the usual oil to be used, unfortunately in my time in the RAF (1956-1969) the oil bowsers were always painted an air force blue colour and the only difference to the two oils was shown on a white or yellow circle with the code OM(D)270 or OM270 and this is where the confusion arose.

If the wrong oil had been inserted into say two, three or maybe all four oil tanks then the effect would all be found at the same time, say 80 minutes after take-off from CB and all engines malfunctioning within a few minutes of each other which in fact was the case. After my drop in the ocean at RAF Gan in 1960 my father narrated the same story to me on my arrival home and so this has lived with me vividly for very nearly 50 years. I do not know what the Accident Report says about this oil but this is my theory and after all if this was kept under wraps under the 30-year rule who would be about today to dispute this theory.

Updated 9th October 2003 I have today received the Accident Report Form A1180 as kindly supplied from the RAF Museum at Hendon. There is scant information which follows:

Pilot Flight Lieutenant J C Wright * AFC Aged 32 holder of Master Green Instrument Rating Certificate

Co-Pilot Pilot Officer M B Geldart(? spelling) Aged 23 who according to the 1180 had not flown a Hastings as Co-Pilot previously.

Of the 14 people on board (The information from the RCAF Archives states 16 as there was a spare Flight Engineer on board! So here there is a discrepancy):

Casualties: 6 passengers including A/Cdr Moreshead slightly inj(ured)

3 Passengers & 5 other members of crew uninjured 

On the reverse of the Accident Record Card the only other wording is:

3 engines failed in flight - a/c ditched successfully - became submerged in approx 2 mins.

412:- Cause of engines failing not established. Some items of distress organisation criticised.

Remedial Action: Action by Command & AM (Air Ministry), taken(?) on items in distress organisation criticised by court - See Acct(???) file

A precise location for this accident is given as 3230N 1750E

This accident report, is like all others, is handwritten and is not completely legible.

*Updated 5th November 2003, Russell Wright the son of Flight Lietenant J C Wright has made contact to inform me that his father was awarded the Air Force Cross (AFC) in the New Years Honours Awards of 1954.

Updated 27th December 2004

Walter Cockerell forwarded this account to me regarding the SAR rescue mission:

I was a signaller on the second Lancaster from Luqa and we dropped the
Lindholm canisters. The standard procedure at Luqa was to have one
Lancaster from 37 or 38 squadron on standby for SAR duties and this would
be fitted with an airborne lifeboat. On this particular morning the
first aircraft to take off for the search was the 38 squadron Lancaster
which was carrying the airborne lifeboat. As the survivors were safe in
a dinghy when the aircraft got to their position it was decided not to drop
the lifeboat so we took off from Luqa at 1005 in TX273 'Victor' of 38
squadron with the Lindholm gear and homed on to the first Lancaster.
When we got there we dropped the canisters, before the amphibian
touched down. At that time the sea looked too rough for it. One of the
cords connecting the canisters snagged on part of the aircraft and
broke and that was the reason that only three canisters were recovered.
Later the Albatross touched down with a tremendous splash
and disappeared in the spray. Looked as though it had sunk. Then it
reappeared and taxied up to the survivors and took them on board.
Having done that it called us on VHF to say that it was over its all up take
off weight and would have to wait for the destroyer and please tell them
not to come too close as they didn't want to be sunk. We stayed at the
site for some time until relieved by another Lancaster and passed the duty
destroyer on the way back to Malta. A most impressive sight at full
speed in quite a heavy sea.

I would love to hear from you if you have any comments you wish to make.

Copyright 2008 John Cooper