1 Air Division

It was my last flight on 412 Squadron in a Comet aircraft with you (Gordon McAninch) as skipper over 39 years ago.

It was the evening of 26 December 1961 and we were to do the Comet sked to Marville and be back home before New Year's Eve.

At the weather briefing, the East coast was down in a blizzard and we could not use Gander or Goose Bay as our starting points to cross the "pond". So we took off for Lajes AFB in the Azores, from where we would fly to Marville.

We had two passengers on board, a Lieutenant Commander from the Royal Canadian Navy and an Air Force Corporal. It hardly seems like the burning of fuel warranted the flight, but we were assured that there was a full load of 40 passengers for the return from Marville. On departure out of Lajes the aircraft was climbing through 20 some-odd thousand feet on our way to a cruising altitude of 33,000 feet when a sudden explosion occurred. Later investigation revealed that part of the compressor blade from No. 2 engine had come off and had penetrated the fuselage causing rapid decompression. The bang which we experienced was the explosion of the air inside the cabin as it was suddenly exposed to the less dense air at altitude. With the sudden expansion of the cabin air and exposure to the colder temperatures at altitude, any moisture in the air immediately vaporized and turned to ice crystals, giving the appearance of white smoke. We quickly decended as the passengers in the rear did not have oxygen masks.

You declared an emergency with the Lajes tower and were informed of the fuel dumping area. You then asked me to go back and brief our two passengers, who were wide-eyes at this time, and quite pale. I explained what had happened and what was going on at the present time and that we would be back in Lajes in about twenty minutes. The RCN Lieutenant Commander said that he did not mind the explosion, but was terrified when he saw the smoke (ice crystals formed by the air moisture and temperature change). He told of a crossing of the North Atlantic in a convoy during the Second World War and his ship was torpedoed and caught fire. The ship was abandoned and the survivors were later picked up by a ship, which, a day later, was to suffer the same fate as the original ship he had been aboard. He was getting a little superstitious when the Comet experienced its explosion and smoke.

It looked like my date with my bride Joan to attend the New Year's festivities at Uplands would have to be put on hold as here we were more than halfway across the pond and our aircraft required a new engine and fuselage repairs.

A 435 (T) Squadron C-130A Hercules aircraft complete with a mobile repair party from 412 Squadron, flew into the Azores on the 27th of December and changed the engine, then left for Marville with our two passengers. After a 25 minute air test, we departed for the UK to the de Havilland airport at Hatfield for repairs to the fuselage. We flew unpressurized so we had to resort to donning oxygen masks during the trip. On approaching the south coast of England, the co-pilot called London Airways for clearance to the Hatfield airport and was informed that it was down in fog as was most of England. So a clearance was obtained to proceed to Shannon, Ireland where the weather was better.

After a short stay on the ground in Ireland, the airports in England began to show an improvement, so we took off for Hatfield once again. Our luck was against us as London informed us that the fog had settled back in and suggested that you try an approach to Gatwick, just to the south of London.

During the Instrument Landing System (ILS) approach to Gatwick, I was aware from the navigator's seat directly behind you that you were having one hell of a time keeping the indicator needles in the correct position for an approach at Gatwick. As our altitude decreased to the point where you should have the runway in sight, you went a little lower and saw the runway off to one side and went for it. You stuck the Comet on the runway. A quick glance at the runway distance indicators on the side of the runway showed that we had little distance remaining in which to make a complete stop before running out of runway. As you hit the brakes, I sat behind in the navigator's position doing the same thing. The Comet ran off the end of the runway and I remembered when the North Star had done the same thing at Issachsen in the NWT during the spring resupply of 1951. With the usual unflappable decorum for which the UK air traffic control system is known, Garwick tower asked: "Canadian Air Force 5302, are you alright out there?"

You told the co-pilot to reply that all was in order, cranked the aircraft about and taxied it to the ramp.

On checking the ILS selection switch we discovered that the co-pilot had dialed the frequency of an adjacent airport and you had still managed to land at Gatwick! We abandoned the aircraft there and caught the train to London where we registered at the Regent Palace Hotel in Piccadilly Circus. You placed a call to the de Havilland plant at Hatfield and learned that the plant was closed for the Christmas and New Year holidays, but we could fly the aircraft to Hatfield and leave it there until the repairs to the fuselage were made in January. Not trusting the weather in the UK, all the crew were on board the flight of the 30th December, 1961 in case we would end up heaven knows where if the Hatfield weather closed in again. Hatfield was open and we left the Comet there. We took a train back and checked into our digs at the Regent Palace.

We were not prepared for this, as we had only brought enough changes to last the three days that we were to be away from home. In addition, our finances were limited based on our original itinerary. Staying in quarters at Marville was a lot cheaper than West End London, so an advance in travel funds was easily arranged with the Canadian Joint Staff in London to tide us over for the duration of our unexpected stay.

On New Year's Eve we partied in the hotel and around three a.m. on the first of January, I placed a long distance call with the hotel switchboard to the mess at Uplands. The male operator was so astounded with this request that he got through to Ottawa in record time and I was talking to squadron members about our situation in the UK. Joan finally was able to grab the phone and we wished each other a happy New Year.

In the morning the management asked us to check out of the hotel, as one of the crew had committed an indiscretion and we were being ousted. We paid our bills and I was quite surprised that the telephone call to Canada was not on the charges for the room! Off we went in two cabs in search of accommodation, which was difficult to obtain as there was a championship soccer match being played in London and all the hotels were full. We finally found rooms off Hyde Park. Shortly afterward we returned to Ottawa on the sked.