Buccaneer crash, Changi

Read the forum code of contact

Member for

14 years 2 months

Posts: 1,259

I'm trying to find the details of a Buccaneer crash at Changi based on a tale I've been told by an Argosy pilot, he seems to think it was around late 1965 but I've drawn a blank so far. Here's the tale for anyone interested:

One particular morning we had to wait some five or ten minutes at the take off holding point close to the beginning of the runway. We did our duties and a few hours after initial departure returned to Changi; we landed in the opposite direction to that we had used for the take off so noticed nothing unusual at the far end of the runway.

We went to the Officers' Mess for lunch. The bar was unusually busy. The reason soon became clear. Just after we had taken off from Changi for our run up to Malaya, a Buccaneer came in to land. Apparently, at two or three hundred feet, it had suffered complete hydraulic failure. This resulted in loss of control and the crew ejected. The empty Buccaneer carried on for a few hundred yards, rolled inverted and crashed onto the very holding point where we had been only a moment or two earlier.

The Buccaneer crew clearly had a lucky escape - hence the celebration in the bar. Our crew certainly also felt the need for a little “un-winder” when the realization of our own near miss became clear.

Original post

Member for

14 years 9 months

Posts: 204

I don't think there was any such incident involving a Buccaneer at Changi, at least not in the 1963-1967 time period. There were of course several Buccaneer losses in the wider Singapore area.

Member for

14 years 2 months

Posts: 1,259

That sounds pretty much spot on and I would guess that time has muddied memories a little. I didn't think to look at other crashes around that time. Thank for clearing it up.

Member for

13 years 2 months

Posts: 18

I saw this happen. I was on the line at 205 Sqn when 3 Scimitars took off.- a few minutes later they came back in line abreast across the runway and when they were over 110 Sqdn the two outers peeled off and the centre pilot ejected. He was so close to the beach that he walked out of the sea just as the fire engines arrived.

Member for

15 years 7 months

Posts: 256

I somehow don't think the crash that you witnessed was the same one?

The one mentioned in my earlier post occurred in September 1965 when a Scimitar which had taken off from Ark Royal on an engine test flight, had one engine fail to re-ignite after a shut-down, and was diverted to Changi and the crash occurred on approach. Mentions of 110 Sqn appear to suggest that they were only stationed at Changi from 1969?

I have been doing a little more digging about the test flight crash, and came across these two articles written about the incident by the pilot concerned (Lt Paddy Waring). It left him with an injury which eventually (after a fall some twelve years later) left him paralysed from the waist down. An interesting read (I note he refers to HMS Eagle, but other sources state that he had taken off from the 'Ark'). The second article includes a photo of the Scimitar upside-down on the ORP:

https://www.inspire-foundation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Paddy-Part-I.pdf

https://www.inspire-foundation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Paddy-Part-II.pdf

Member for

13 years 2 months

Posts: 18

Further investigation reveals that it was XD277 that I saw ditch on 6 April 1966. Problem was engine fires and hydraulic failure.