DC-3 G-AMHJ incident 4th April 1978

 DC-3  G-AMHJ  incident  4th April 1978

Paul Gulliver image

4th April 1978 was a date I will not forget, I was a Captain with Intra Airways in Jersey CI, and that day our first flight was Jersey -Staverton -Jersey.

I and F/O Clive along with CC Fiona pre-flight checked DC-3 G-AMHJ, we had around 25 passengers and around half fuel for the short flight to Staverton. History tells us that Intra at the time was one of the last operators to use the DC-3 for scheduled passenger operations in Europe.

The takeoff and flight up to Staverton from Jersey were normal and we arrived overhead the Staverton NDB beacon ready for the non-precision approach. The weather was not brilliant, however, cloud base around 600ft with easterly surface winds allowed the approach to runway 09 at Staverton.

Just as we arrived overhead the NDB beacon there was a huge bang accompanied by lots of vibration, as I was handling pilot it felt like a starboard engine failure, as the old pilot adage of ‘dead leg dead engine’ was clear and this along with low starboard engine RPM seemed to indicate the starboard engine. Just to check I asked the F/O Clive to look out his side window, when he looked back at me, he said nothing, but I instantly knew it was the starboard engine, his expression was of fear and his face was pale. Only later on the ground did I really realise why his expression had changed. 

We shut down the starboard engine, increased power on the live port engine and I trimmed the aircraft. Airspeed was quickly dropping, however, I managed to get airspeed stabilised at the minimum single-engine speed of 86 knots.

Toby Dixon image

With the undercarriage up and flaps at 11° down and maintaining an airspeed of 86kts, it soon became clear that level flight was not possible, indeed the best we would manage was around 500fpm down.

This was turning into our unlucky but also lucky day, as the descent profile from over the beacon was for about 500fpm descent, going 5nm out turning back and 5nm inbound to the runway.

This we did, holding full power on the port P&W 1830 engine, just holding the descent profile, and leaving the undercarriage up until we became visual with the runway at 600ft, and landing with only the 11° flap.                                                                                                 

Staverton in those days had the small passenger terminal at the far end of runway 09, and only a small curved taxiway from the runway, so as luck would have it, I managed to turn right at the runway end and slide to a parking position without having to use any power.

Once stopped, we let the passengers disembark from the port rear door, they must have looked back, but would not have seen the damage to the starboard engine. Clive and I left and followed them, we walked around to the starboard side, now I knew why Clive had looked so pale.

The starboard engine had failed in spectacular fashion, a conrod had snaped pushing the cylinder outwards and destroying the petal cowlings on that side, they had spayed out without detaching from the aircraft but forming a huge air brake on the outside of the engine. Also, as the propeller feathered it pushed the detached cowlings further back and jamming them in the open position, no wonder we had been unable to hold level altitude.


An engineer arrived shaking his head, he put up a trestle and from the inside of the cowling produced a hand full of oil and bits of the broken engine. Not long after, the local Police arrived, they opened the back of their squad car to show us the broken oily bits of P&W engine, which they had picked up from the B4063 road, thankfully they had fallen but without causing any damage or injuries. 

After Intra sent a replacement DC-3 G-AMYJ up to Staverton, we positioned as passengers back to Jersey, only to be asked to fly that day's late Jersey-Dinard-Jersey schedule DC-3 rotation with G-AMYJ.

The story had a significant twist, as the following day the Chief Piot called me into his office, I thought I’m for it now, but no, he said Le Galle you keep breaking our DC-3s so we are putting you back on the Viscount as Captain, I had flown it as F/O, and two days later I was in Sumburgh, flying training for my LHS Viscount conversion.

4th April 1978 remains a significant day for me.




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