DEATH OF PELICAN-16. Avro Shackleton Crash. Part-1

in the year 2000 I was spending some time with a friend of mine I was living in k-town Steve Searle and he played he being involved with of the South African Air Force Museum for a while and he played back a tape cassette of a recording of a mayday radio transmission from an aircraft that had crashed in the Sahara now this record this was the real thing this was the genuine Mayday call of one of the crew members onboard the aircraft basically it was an aircraft in 1994 after apartheid South Africa was the you know the the flavor of the year internationally really as a country and this aircraft an average a cotton or had been invited to take part in the UK air show season the vehicle aircraft had been rebuilt refurbished attested flown pilots got all their surf certification and they took off when I heard this story and heard that recording I thought there is an amazing story to be told here and so I went to the Air Force and said I'd like to tell the story and they said now it's not going to happen because the crew members all 19 had survived against all the odds but they had decided that they that nobody should gain financially from this accident and I said well I'm actually not you know I'm not a big player I'm not a big TV company or anything like that nobody's going to make money from it I want to do it as a love of filmmaking a love of aviation I loved airplanes and when I say to them and we will put it up to sell the DVD will go up for sale and the museum Air Force Museum would get a cut of that and I would take whatever I would you know whatever it cost me out of my pocket and so you know there would be no profiteering and that was what they were worried about they had been contacted apparently in National Geographic I think and there turned out all other offers and so I made the film and if I think about it today it is one of the most rewarding filmmaking experiences I have ever had and when I finally got to show the crew members we just but we showed the video after the Edit in a big hangar and there wasn't a dry eye in the house and I realized then that I had achieved something really special that my that all my filmmaking talent I had poured into this program it took one year to make I still regarded it as perhaps the best certainly the best documentary that I have ever made it's now on YouTube there is there was I didn't I never recovered the amount of money that I spent making it but it was one of the most rewarding experiences as I said of my career it's in two parts on YouTube I hope you enjoy it it is midnight on the 8th of July 1994 taxiing out is Pelican 1 6 an avro shackleton of the south african air force museum delighting in their achievement the crew of 19 who for the past two years painstaking to restore their beloved aircraft Greg grand for an epic flight across Africa to Britain during the days that follow what was a meticulously planned mission will become a near tragedy and a story of dedication professionalism personal heroism and sheer good fortune will emerge this is the story that would become known as the death of Pelican 1/6 the idea started with ROM bhujiya at the Museum and one had this absolute thing about taking a Shackleton to Oscars in North America I said him never never it'll never ever work on is there's just too much to be done the airplanes all that hasn't flown for the best part of ten years of that stage because remember the Shackleton's were withdrawn on the 23rd of november 1984 the avro shackleton one of the most complex piston-engined aircraft ever produced began its life with the south african air force in 1957 with 35 squadron by 1984 the last chekalin have been retired from active service many of these aircraft survived most as gate guards or museum pieces [Music] derived from the Bombers that laid waste Hitler's Europe in the Second World War the four engine Shackleton was operated by only two Air Forces the RAF and the South African Air Force with affection crews gave the aircraft nicknames information flying the South Africans used the callsign giant in the RAF less affectionately it was often referred to as 10,000 loose rivets flying in close formation one high-ranking RAF officer once described the Shackleton as reminding him irresistible of an elephant's bottom gray and wrinkled outside dark and smelly inside the Shackleton's primary missions were coastal defence and maritime search and rescue the eye and the sky watching over vast stretches of coastline it was so good at its intended job that for a time Britain used the Shackleton as its primary early warning defense platform but sitting on the ground in Pretoria was one seven one six and one seven one six and one seven one seven with the two Shackleton's that were modified they had new mine spots for them just before ever phased out so it was connected to rebuild one seven one six about fifteen months prior to our departure the lads started working on the on the aeroplane at me Victoria with my three stalwarts at that stage of the game were sergeant major pooty-poo kita books Broncos and gas hisses god bless them all I did a magnificent job they were separated from their families for long periods of time while they went up to swap core did the work came back home for a break went back up there and they really worked and I went before the Air Force board and one of the generals they said America over the water he said to me how about getting to the United Kingdom could you change it could you change all your planning and get to approvals and your accommodation all arranged in the period of time left to go to England said general that's first prize and the routing eventually that was approved was the one from Kate on to Libreville to a began to Lisbon entering at Brian Norton was going to be which is a c-130 base quite festive Swindon in the UK that is where we would have might stopped when we arrived at the in the UK when we were to have done the trip south africa had already had its general election in 1994 when president Nelson Mandela was elected the first democratically elected president of South Africa we knew that we would be quite flavor of the month and quite said it would not be too difficult to get approval and it is true it is everyone was so willing to help us we were welcomed back with open arms by everyone that especially writes the epitaph and I'll never forget it was at a museum a day that we finally dissolute one seven one six and timeless religion [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] on the 2nd of February 1994 Pelican 1/6 was rolled out into a blustery winters morning to undergo the acid test of light [Applause] [Music] [Applause] like 26 [Music] [Applause] [Music] started as an idea of one's mind and it ended in a a dream come true [Music] [Applause] to profit so I thought is that the a test we landed it waterproof we refueled we slept the night and the next morning we bought a vector Kappa Magnum [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] with the blessing of the chief of the Air Force the crew set about preparing Pelican 1/6 for perhaps its most ambitious mission of its already distinguished career particularly leading up to Gallagher find that the airplane stood for four weeks while at time today and refurbished it actually looks absolutely drab but we couldn't get the thing into the air in order to get the test program completed and also to get our training completed because that was the big thing we had to retrain ourselves to fly the airplane and we just built it up in stages eventually we got our eye off writings back end and you know there's letter dies the weather was really hero and I knew and we had a lot of problems with engine we have blob engines of the singing put them on to one section every time you loved an engine you had to do a taste-off can we manage to get the testing program program completed Eric was chosen as a commander for the triple he was the aircraft c'mon Horus was the overall chief in charge and I was a cub by daybreak on the 6th of July 1994 after two years of painstaking work Pelican 1 6 and its crew of 19 make their final preparations spares including carburetors Magneto's and even a complete main wheel go into the bomb bay survival gear including locator beacons flares and rations go into the stowage compartments inside the fuselage we uh never forget we started yeah there were hundreds of people here there's activity fantastic and every kid that you could imagine was young we planned for a departure Midnight's 7th 8th of July margin 94 for the first leg 10 hour flight between captain and libreville gabon Lord you have searched me and you know me you know when I sit and when I rise but seize my thoughts from a pause you are familiar with all my way I started the engines at midnight and we were heavy I mean this good apply to program the holdings of this red line [Music] it was a perfect slide absolutely no problem aeroplane wind like a dream when we landed in livable I remember saying to put he after he agreed fuel the airplane and check the oil this aircraft hasn't used any oil pudding is that a sign of things to come a good sign of things to come but the people were extremely helpful extremely kind said in a lovely hotel and the next morning they had like a farewell champagne breakfast for us and we make today we have to go for everywhere and are able tom was ten hundred hours for a father our flat across the budget sailing across the edge again it was probably an Iron Horse art boot started to hunt it's just little gauge there and we not start to enter means that you got supercharger problems you can be quite a lot of damage to the engine if you actually actually fly when the boost is hunting like sir well we went down onto three it wasn't a big big deal thing we set her back to Farquaad comfortably on three angled and we flew for the last hour and a half to two I began on three then we had a lot of problems getting a replacement engine we'd left a replacement engine at work and we just didn't seem to be able to get the engine to come to eventually we approached a person you'd become friendly with us he was one of the chief pilots for air freak and he said on my analogy and sure enough next airfry plot that came in from German in German major change was done by putting and his crew everyone got stuck in every one if a guy had a use he would run by hamburgers to feed that good food to feed the lads while they were working this is a genuine team effort [Music] [Music] now we were running late because we had time schedules to keep so Oscar is ask the crew lads we worked a long night a long day there are four pilots there enough navigators there are enough people to manage the back of the airplane would you be happy for a night departure to fly tonight so they can get to Lisbon make up the time so we can honor our agreement with the RAF with with their historic flight with the international attitude people who had also helped us financially I wanted to keep my side of the bargain if at all possible but not at any expense we could airborne it about pretty fast for sick software kiss part out of Abidjan on the 12th of July [Music] I was sitting in the right hands he could take ok to take off and are we do this dancing could be like to ask to have Joseph to ask to ask 12 and over the mighty Nigeria life and it got dark the typical meal on a Shackleton would be starting the day off with an omelet has been said in the past by many a member that that same omelet doesn't taste the same on the ground it's going to be appreciated or we may done border Shackleton to be appreciated as you must remember space in this airplane was was at a premium and I was sitting on the beam behind the engineer and I was watching the engineers panel and I wasn't happy so I'm watching the radiated temperature on number four which is the right hand after engine and it was just steadily farming I've heard in the in the headset that there was this concern about the temperature the number four engine eventually I mean I could see the writing on the wall but eventually you say it's the bulb it's always the bulb you always hope it's the bulb and I remember the debate between the pilots and transfer he was on the panel at the time and his idea was let's shut down feather number four engine before we really pick up trouble Bravo move over herself bear in mind this is at night one o'clock in the morning for now a thousand foot above mean sea level was fifty hundred foot above ground level the ended a temperature was 38 degrees Celsius secured the engine and we set cruising power you've got it just up the bar a little bit on angels and as I went back I look out this window next to the engineers panel way okay on the winter and classic outlooks and almost fire coming off the props and we looked out of the window and had a good look and it wasn't an Elmo's fire it was flames point I hope with coming out between the two props just pouring out we've got serious problems number three has just given up the ghost the moment translation unit of number three engine packed up I realized we can't eat the ground now we were really into a serious emergency we had to secure that engine as quickly as possible shut the engine down push the filling bar and waited for the fire extinguisher and the final what went through me immediately at that stage was it can't be true two engines on the same flux within minutes of one another this is a bad dream but one of the propellers wouldn't River a wind burning prop is a no-no it's a huge huge handbrake a huge parachute that just it just it's just a 9-iron just restarted number four okay so then you just get things under control even with just about full power on three engines with a dwindling prop there was no way we could say we were going down [Music] [Music] you [Music] I think that autosave because they must think it we made early to see we were going to bring I mean this was as as easy as any anything is when and where and the various emergency messages wind up people were running up and down the ER of fact you can imagine suppose had to be started crash belts and as we put out and for about five minutes the swing hard and then eventually what it was this definition there we were gang down at about 100 feet a minute that's a kind of T bad at look at the radio altimeter and it was coming down awesome steadily and I thought it's highly unlikely that maybe there's a job maybe down the road I'm powerful with disability down with ability not even a clock star in the sky nah it's pitch black and I was sitting here and I'm telling you this would lit up as if somebody had put a search lot on couldn't believe it and I looked after the variety and number four was actually glowing smoke and I shot at the engine and said engineer and I immediately feathered and I'll tell you that white glow started going red and then a story going bright red and then it started going cool and it went out I'm a TV in in the terrible situation that we were in i issue felt good because of that thing that have caught a lot that would be nameless it would have been a bomb in ten second we were lucky they then try to feather the number four engine catch it feather it wouldn't feather i this and i wear to and windmilling props on the right-hand side the worst possible scenario to annulling props on the same side to love engine on a central bank m alpha later and now we had a stability problem hahaha I though Oh Oh Oh remember stepping in Blake strapping in myself and some source that went to me were hey God Evan suggests my kids yet I don't want to die yet it's not the very good feeling especially if you know for in the vicinity of about the often out the thirty five minutes that you're actually going to die and you've got that time period to think about this I had no problem about the fishing lure some of the crew I'll is my doubt in my mind about that I knew we had probably the best of South African pilots in the front it having got wins together with Peter tag on new year was a very professional pilot and of course N equals a born pilots I had not gone to that first fact taking asking a critical speed was about onion fifteen off now I don't know if you know anything about hanging aerobatic but if you hit the gun at 150 knots your chances are not as good as they are if you can hit the ground at a hundred ten knots sir and by this time we were going through about two thousand feet on the decent we didn't know how much ground was underneath us we had a vague idea the net pulled out it took tap imap Anthony should at suppose I want to frighten you guys which we are now flying straight towards a little hill and I suggest you to enlist we did thinning I don't know how we did it but we did that's how do I come sit on Mossad but because anyone anything we will mulling we did have a certain amount of hard rolling but so what went through me was when do we concertina into this mountain face when do we just crash into this mountain face or when do we maybe Nick something with a wingtip and the aircraft is out of control how and by the way I just don't want to burn because it you know I did what you want to do is you want to fly the airplane at the lowest possible rate abusing slowly as possible and you need the ground well we couldn't week we decided that 150 was too fast we wanted to aim for 110 so we started come back on the path we got to speed down be done be done and eventually we could just about Montana but we had about 550 like manipulative decent there was no indication that we're flying over and even terrain the radio altimeter had a lovely city decrease all the way down and we were about 200 foot I said guys were going to make it eventually the whole situation was stabilized Eirik did a magnificent job in maintaining a full suite of about 95 knots between 95 and 100 knots and each time the aircraft would stall you just install that wing he did a magnificent job you've got to suck you see and we just shot everybody fresh guys shooter impact it secure base base brace brace brace brace and then 20 feet we yank at all you just holler we did the dick

Channel: Be A Filmmaker

Views: 246,820

Rating: 4.8177876 out of 5

Keywords: how to shoot video, Avro Shackleton, SAAF, RAF, maritime patrol, South African Air Force, Royal Air Force, Sahara, crash, accident, air crash investigations, Flypast magazine, tv documentary

Id: XCemSU7kAdc

Length: 29min 16sec (1756 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 24 2017