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In my last posting, you read of my first air crash. Now I would like to relate to you my second air crash.
On 27th June, 1962, I was tasked, together with Flying Officer Mohd. Ngah, under Operation Order 443/62, to carry out a troop lift of Malaysian Police Field Force personal between Grik airfield and Fort Tapong. We were flying a RMAF Twin Pioneer FM1067. (See picture above)
Both Mat Ngah and myself were in the same course, when we were doing our flying training with the RAF in England. Mat was ex-army and was trained at Sandhurst, prior to his transfer to the RMAF. We got along very well and became very good friends.
Before taking off from Kl, we tossed a coin to see who would fly the first sector. Since Mat and myself were both Junior Captains at that time, we shared the flying by alternating sectors as Captain. I had won the toss, and so I flew the aircraft from KL to Grik. A flight of 1 hour 35 minutes.
I took off at about 0800 hours for Grik. Grik is a very small town north of Ipoh. It has a grass strip which has a very steep drop at one end. While it was not a dangerous air strip, it becomes very slippery after heavy rain, and I was involved in a landing incident on another occasion. My Squadron Commander John Williams, one day, overshot the landing and ended down the steep slope! Grik had often been, one of our staging air strips, when we carried out troop lifts between police jungle forts and urban police camps. One night, I slept in the aircraft overnight, because the small government rest house was fully booked for the Mentri Besar (Chief Minister).
Fort Tapong, on the other hand, was a Class A air strip, which puts it as being dangerous. It was the size of a football field, surrounded by hills, making it like a hole in the ground. At the end of the strip was a tall limestone hill, parted at the centre, looking like two hills!
In the early days, the engineers went in and using dynamite, blasted away the thick foliage between the two hills. This made it possible for us to approach through the hills for the landing. It was very precarious, as we maneuvered down, with our wing tips barely clearing the side of the hills. As soon as the wing tips cleared, the throttles were cut, and the aircraft sank to the ground. Just before the wheels touched down, a burst of power from the engines cushioned the touch down. The first time I landed this direction, it was so scary that I thought I was going to hit the side of the hill. Nerve wrecking! After some time, the foliage grew up again and it was not possible to use this approach, and the strip became a 'one way' strip, meaning landing and take-off in one particular direction only. It was also unique in that, you could not see the air strip visually, unless you were overhead or on short final during landing. In order to make an approach for landing, the circuit was plotted such that, the aircraft must be at a certain landmark at a precise height.
Fort Tapong does not exist anymore. At the end of the emergency, the river was dynamited and the entire fort was flooded. Before this, the Police Field Force did a recce and discovered a foot trail crossing the limestone hill. At the limestone hill looking down directly at the air strip, they discovered a table and chair on which the communist terrorists were spying and recording all the aircraft movements!
When I made my approach for landing at Grik, my tachometer, which reads the revolutions per minute (RPM) of the engines, suddenly died. So I told Mat that I would use his tachometer instead. As soon as I said that, his tachometer also swung and went dead. Anyway, I landed safely as the instrument had no bearing on the landing. I had to shut down the engines and went to the rest house to call KL for assistance, as I could not operate without the instrument.
As the aircraft was now not serviceable, we waited for the relief aircraft from KL. By the time the relief aircraft came with the technical crew and spare instruments to carry out the repair, it was about three in the afternoon.
It was Mat's turn to fly the next sector. Taking on 12 troops and stores, we took-off from Grik. I was occupying the right hand seat. The 20 minute flight to Fort Tapong was very bumpy.
As we approached Fort Tapong, we noticed a RAF Sycamore helicopter parked at the overshoot end of the air strip. Mat told me that he would undershoot a little so that we could stop in time. Looking out the right side, I suddenly saw water under the tall grass. Before I could call out to Mat, he had cut the engines. The right wheel hit the water-logged ground with a loud bang. Immediately the right undercarriage got ripped off, and I saw the right engine hitting the ground. The engine stopped and the steel propeller looked like ribbons! The aircraft skidded on the right side of the belly and came to a stop. As the impact was on my side, I felt the force caving in and my right foot was caught momentarily between the rudder pedals and the side.
Immediately after the crash, it became very silent and both our hands shook, due to shock. Realising that we had crashed, I found that we were not injured. I then switched everything off and went into the cabin to evacuate all the passengers. The passengers were looking at me not realising that we had crashed! I saw that the door was twisted half open as I shouted to the passengers to leave the aircraft. Some tried to pick up the boxes, but I told them to leave immediately as I was fearful of a fire. After getting the passengers out, both Mat and myself ran off to a safe distance. The left wing tank had punctured and avgas was pouring down like a tap. Avgas is a very volatile and dangerous substance. A spark could cause the material to explode and burn.
Lying on our stomach a safe distance away, we waited to see what would happened. Luckily it did not catch fire, but the grass area where the avgas poured, turned brown. Looking at the aircraft, it was really pathetic. The nose was dug in on the ground, the left wing pointed up, and the fuselage smashed at the floorboard. The whole aircraft was a category 5 damage, which meant a total write off. Some of the passengers were not aware of the crash but thought that only the landing was heavy! Later, the engineers went in and salvaged the engines and whatever they could, and transported all the parts to Grik by raft. The journey took them three and a half days.
We spent the night at Fort Tapong. It was difficult for Mat and myself to eat and sleep that night after the crash and we consoled each other. The Fort Commander, Arnold Fernandez, a good friend of ours tried to cheer us up.
The next morning, the helicopter lifted us up to Grik. Another relief Twin Pioneer flew into Grik later that day and I flew back to KL. A Board of Inquiry was convened and though Mat was found blame-worthy for the crash, no disciplinary action was taken. He was given a pep talk by the Base Commander. One year later, I found myself in Scotland, taking delivery of a new Twin Pioneer aircraft as a replacement, and flying it all the way back to KL. But then, that is another story....
Till then....
In my last posting, you read of my first air crash. Now I would like to relate to you my second air crash.
On 27th June, 1962, I was tasked, together with Flying Officer Mohd. Ngah, under Operation Order 443/62, to carry out a troop lift of Malaysian Police Field Force personal between Grik airfield and Fort Tapong. We were flying a RMAF Twin Pioneer FM1067. (See picture above)
Both Mat Ngah and myself were in the same course, when we were doing our flying training with the RAF in England. Mat was ex-army and was trained at Sandhurst, prior to his transfer to the RMAF. We got along very well and became very good friends.
Before taking off from Kl, we tossed a coin to see who would fly the first sector. Since Mat and myself were both Junior Captains at that time, we shared the flying by alternating sectors as Captain. I had won the toss, and so I flew the aircraft from KL to Grik. A flight of 1 hour 35 minutes.
I took off at about 0800 hours for Grik. Grik is a very small town north of Ipoh. It has a grass strip which has a very steep drop at one end. While it was not a dangerous air strip, it becomes very slippery after heavy rain, and I was involved in a landing incident on another occasion. My Squadron Commander John Williams, one day, overshot the landing and ended down the steep slope! Grik had often been, one of our staging air strips, when we carried out troop lifts between police jungle forts and urban police camps. One night, I slept in the aircraft overnight, because the small government rest house was fully booked for the Mentri Besar (Chief Minister).
Fort Tapong, on the other hand, was a Class A air strip, which puts it as being dangerous. It was the size of a football field, surrounded by hills, making it like a hole in the ground. At the end of the strip was a tall limestone hill, parted at the centre, looking like two hills!
In the early days, the engineers went in and using dynamite, blasted away the thick foliage between the two hills. This made it possible for us to approach through the hills for the landing. It was very precarious, as we maneuvered down, with our wing tips barely clearing the side of the hills. As soon as the wing tips cleared, the throttles were cut, and the aircraft sank to the ground. Just before the wheels touched down, a burst of power from the engines cushioned the touch down. The first time I landed this direction, it was so scary that I thought I was going to hit the side of the hill. Nerve wrecking! After some time, the foliage grew up again and it was not possible to use this approach, and the strip became a 'one way' strip, meaning landing and take-off in one particular direction only. It was also unique in that, you could not see the air strip visually, unless you were overhead or on short final during landing. In order to make an approach for landing, the circuit was plotted such that, the aircraft must be at a certain landmark at a precise height.
Fort Tapong does not exist anymore. At the end of the emergency, the river was dynamited and the entire fort was flooded. Before this, the Police Field Force did a recce and discovered a foot trail crossing the limestone hill. At the limestone hill looking down directly at the air strip, they discovered a table and chair on which the communist terrorists were spying and recording all the aircraft movements!
When I made my approach for landing at Grik, my tachometer, which reads the revolutions per minute (RPM) of the engines, suddenly died. So I told Mat that I would use his tachometer instead. As soon as I said that, his tachometer also swung and went dead. Anyway, I landed safely as the instrument had no bearing on the landing. I had to shut down the engines and went to the rest house to call KL for assistance, as I could not operate without the instrument.
As the aircraft was now not serviceable, we waited for the relief aircraft from KL. By the time the relief aircraft came with the technical crew and spare instruments to carry out the repair, it was about three in the afternoon.
It was Mat's turn to fly the next sector. Taking on 12 troops and stores, we took-off from Grik. I was occupying the right hand seat. The 20 minute flight to Fort Tapong was very bumpy.
As we approached Fort Tapong, we noticed a RAF Sycamore helicopter parked at the overshoot end of the air strip. Mat told me that he would undershoot a little so that we could stop in time. Looking out the right side, I suddenly saw water under the tall grass. Before I could call out to Mat, he had cut the engines. The right wheel hit the water-logged ground with a loud bang. Immediately the right undercarriage got ripped off, and I saw the right engine hitting the ground. The engine stopped and the steel propeller looked like ribbons! The aircraft skidded on the right side of the belly and came to a stop. As the impact was on my side, I felt the force caving in and my right foot was caught momentarily between the rudder pedals and the side.
Immediately after the crash, it became very silent and both our hands shook, due to shock. Realising that we had crashed, I found that we were not injured. I then switched everything off and went into the cabin to evacuate all the passengers. The passengers were looking at me not realising that we had crashed! I saw that the door was twisted half open as I shouted to the passengers to leave the aircraft. Some tried to pick up the boxes, but I told them to leave immediately as I was fearful of a fire. After getting the passengers out, both Mat and myself ran off to a safe distance. The left wing tank had punctured and avgas was pouring down like a tap. Avgas is a very volatile and dangerous substance. A spark could cause the material to explode and burn.
Lying on our stomach a safe distance away, we waited to see what would happened. Luckily it did not catch fire, but the grass area where the avgas poured, turned brown. Looking at the aircraft, it was really pathetic. The nose was dug in on the ground, the left wing pointed up, and the fuselage smashed at the floorboard. The whole aircraft was a category 5 damage, which meant a total write off. Some of the passengers were not aware of the crash but thought that only the landing was heavy! Later, the engineers went in and salvaged the engines and whatever they could, and transported all the parts to Grik by raft. The journey took them three and a half days.
We spent the night at Fort Tapong. It was difficult for Mat and myself to eat and sleep that night after the crash and we consoled each other. The Fort Commander, Arnold Fernandez, a good friend of ours tried to cheer us up.
The next morning, the helicopter lifted us up to Grik. Another relief Twin Pioneer flew into Grik later that day and I flew back to KL. A Board of Inquiry was convened and though Mat was found blame-worthy for the crash, no disciplinary action was taken. He was given a pep talk by the Base Commander. One year later, I found myself in Scotland, taking delivery of a new Twin Pioneer aircraft as a replacement, and flying it all the way back to KL. But then, that is another story....
Till then....
2 comments:
Is there a third sequel to air crash? Not a hair out of place, you are indeed very fortunate to survive to tell. I know you as a family man with no chequered past but didn't know your past is so colourful. Are you bull-shitting?
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