Nimrod R1 XW666 engine fire and ditching 25 years ago today.

[middlesbrough]

Short reconstruction video on You Tube.

[unclenelli]

IIRC The Co-Pilot was the only one not to get a bravery award - he wanted to aim for land!
Art Stacey and the rest off the crew all opted to ditch.

Demonic registration? - it was then reassigned to RivetJoint! - Same Sqn!

You Tube

[Surplus]

I remember it well, we were on the way back from a SAR scramble in an MR2 when 666 ditched. The sea was absolutely flat calm that day, not a ripple between Kinloss and Cape Wrath, if you've flown in that area, you'll know just how rare that is. A well handled incident which got the result that the crew's performance deserved. (Was it really 25 years ago?)

[ExAscoteer2]

Originally Posted by unclenelli

IIRC The Co-Pilot was the only one not to get a bravery award - he wanted to aim for land!
Art Stacey and the rest off the crew all opted to ditch.

The Co was Pat Hewitt. I think you will find that Art Stacey's original plan was to get to Lossie but the fire burned rather faster than initially thought, hence the ditching. They were lucky that the Moray was a mill pond that day, otherwise the result could have been very different.

[Professor Plum]

Art stacey and dick chelu (RIP dick), were groundschool instructors while i was going through EFT groundschool. Once we’d finished groundschool, Art recounted his story of the ditching that day

Talk about awe inspiring!!!

[flapsin]

I have happy memories of flying with both Art as his copilot and with Pat when he was my copilot in the Nimrod. There was a real sense of crew esprit in those days and although I had a great second career in airlines nothing could compare with those days. And yes I know the R1 wasn’t maritime. Happy retirement Guys.
Bob M

[Yellow Sun]

Originally Posted by unclenelli

Demonic registration? - it was then reassigned to RivetJoint! - Same Sqn!

That had to happen. Add up the digits of the serial numbers of the squadron’s aircraft and you will see why:

664, 665, 666

YS

[unclenelli]

51 Sqn ended Nimrod days with 664, 665 and 249 (converted from MR2 to R1)
I was at Bastion in Sep 2006 when 230 went down, heard it on MIRC from the Harrier, scrambled over to ATO and saw what it was, where it was from, then MINIMISE kicked in! Sky News "Expert" said that only Herc and Chinook could carry that many people, so everyone from Odiham hung their heads!!!! We knew it WASN'T a Chinook or Herc!!!!

[salad-dodger]

Originally Posted by middlesbrough

Short reconstruction video on You Tube.

what absolute garbage that is.

[Skeleton]

The Flight Engineer on that sortie should also be remembered for different reasons.

[heights good]

Originally Posted by Skeleton

The Flight Engineer on that sortie should also be remembered for different reasons.

intriguing...any elaboration?

[salad-dodger]

Originally Posted by heights good

intriguing...any elaboration?

my thoughts too. No names here, but I remember him well.

[Brian N]

Originally Posted by Skeleton

The Flight Engineer on that sortie should also be remembered for different reasons.

Condition of his flying boots perhaps??