In July 1965 the Royal Air Force sadly recorded its worst loss of life in a single accident in the
RAF's history within the UK. [There was another incident off the coast of Italy with a Hercules C130 aircraft carrying more
paratroops than at Abingdon but I am talking here, on this page, in the UK and involving UK forces] This aircraft was
Hastings TG577 that was based at Colerne and was on a paradrop exercise out of RAF Abingdon.
I have a lot of information on this tragic accident already, I have always avoided writing about
this story in as much as I did not want to offend anyone, especially, family, friends, colleagues and neighbours left behind
in the event.
Over the years I have had much correspondence from some next of kin who openly criticise
the Ministry of Defence, it is not for me to place such messages here but I do run a very active forum called the Royal Air
Force Forum [This is an unofficial site and has absolutely no connection with any official from the MoD today or in the
past, in fact I would think that they would not approve such a webpage if I made contact with Whitehall] http://RAFForum.activeboard.com/
Over the coming weeks/months/years I hope to piece together a webpage where some eye witnesses and
relatives come together to talk about their experiences. I am, and have been in touch with relatives, regarding TG577 for
a number of years.
If you have read some of my pages you will understand my involvement here as 50 years ago on March
1st 1960 I was put in a very similar incident with TG579 at RAF Gan in the Maldives, all the passengers on that accident escaped
by the skin of their teeth fortunately. However the memories and many sleepless nights continue to this day...........
Some further reading from:
The Palace Barracks
Wikipedia
AAAHS [David Rayner]
From one of my pages on Hastings elevators
Photos of Hastings aircraft from one of my websites
