Karen Skinner referring to "Readers Submitted Photos" in NetLetter nr 1343 sent this comment -
Hi. I noticed in the latest newsletter that Brian said the blue uniforms worn by 2 flight. attendants in the picture were from 1960. These uniforms date after 1968. They followed the green winter uniforms & later they introduced patterned dresses. These blue ones were one of three colors, white, red & blue & they were a fortrell sponge type material that were supposed to be non flammable. I worked from 1968-1993 & was very involved with the uniforms & anything concerning IFS. Thought I'd pass this bit of info along.
Cheers, Karen
(The mention of non-flammable reminds me of the time when a friend of mine working for British Airways in the uniform Department. BA had just placed an order for uniforms in a wool blend. At the time the war in the Falklands was in progress and the UK warship “Sheffield” had been hit by an Exocet rocket. Many injuries were due to the uniforms worn were not non-flammable. Upon learning this news, BA immediately changed the order – eds)
In NetLetter nr 1341, we had a photo of a CP aircraft in distress and we asked for any information from our readers. This is a continuation of the responses we had in NetLetter nr 1343-
Mike Nash came through with this information -
This aircraft had a checkered history prior to overshooting the runway on landing in fog at Vancouver Airport on February 07, 1968: View the aircraft' history at wwwaussieairliners.org
Perhaps the most pertinent bit of information to the question was a further link in the first web reference to a summary report (Click here) of the accident:
This wasn’t the first fatal accident of a CPA 'Empress of Sydney' aircraft; the first being the first major Comet disaster that occurred on take-off in Karachi on March 3 1953: Click here for a report of that incident from the Sydney Morning Herald.
Bob Hanna provided us with this -
The picture you have in Netletter 1341 of the CPAL a/c is the Standard Airways flight that hit the south terminal in Feb 1968. Click here for a link to Henry Tenby's story on the incident.
Regards Bob
Wayne Brazier sent this memory of the event -
I believe the aircraft in the picture is the one described below. If so, I was returning to YXJ as a Passenger Agent that morning, and offered my services if they could use me. I was immediately tasked with interviewing and offering CP's assistance to the travelers who were brought into one of the YVR lounges.
One of those I assisted was Captain Tom Lamb of Lamb Airways of Flin Flon, MB. Having been born and raised in Flin Flon, I was well familiar with Captain Lamb and his airline, and my father knew him well.
Wayne Brazier.
Lyle Gibson, David Hart and David Townson also responded with details of the incident.
Marty Vanstone sent in his recollection -
Further recall reminds me that the investigation named pilot fatigue as one of the factors. The pilots were based in Seattle, had driven up to Vancouver for the evening departure. During the night, they then flew approx. six hours down and, after a ground stop of unknown length, another six hours back. By any measure, a very long and fatiguing duty period. The following links provide more info and pictures. Click here for a YouTube video on the story or Click Here for another report on the story.
Marty Vanstone
And we have to wrap this up now with a memory from Bill Wood -
Flight was landing at YVR on a foggy morning on the old runway 26 [heading east] . A discussion between the crew members as to whether a landing was feasible occurred – the result was that they missed the runway on the south side. The A/C slid across the field and struck a MOT building [shack] killing the employee inside. It then struck some light aircraft parked nearby some of which were ingested in the engines on the R/H wing and also caused the nose gear to fail.
The Aircraft now slid onto the old South Terminal Ramp with a slightly curved to the right motion. The left wing tip struck a United Airlines A/C [DC8?] parked on the ramp in its normal overnight position. These impacts turned the A/C to the right away from running into the old South Terminal.
There was normally an Air Canada DC 8 Freighter parked on the south side on the Terminal Ramp but it was delayed by weather [fog]. The Aircraft then came to a stop when it ran into a building. The building was concrete block with Steel I-Beams. As the nose gear had collapsed the cockpit went under the steel 'I' Beam and the top of the fuselage struck the Beam which then stopped the Aircraft. This beam cut the Engine Control cables so that the Engines could not be shut down. They were shut down by an Air Canada employee who gained access to the cables in the cockpit [not too sure of the exact details of this]. There was also a hole made in the left side of the fuselage ahead of the wing when the fuselage went into the building. A flight attendant was seen through this hole and was later found dead. The running engines made it difficult for passengers exiting via over wing Emergency exits and sent them tumbling on the ground.
One of these passengers was Bert Field from Technical Training who was on a pass with his wife to/from HNL. I was volunteered later to go on board to the rear of the aircraft to get the recorders. Every seat in the cabin was soaked with FUEL! Using a large fork lift the aircraft was towed around behind the CP hangers by the River for disassembly. A large number of CP Mechanics were involved in this on their days off.
Regards Bill Wood
Murphy's Law applied in NetLetter # 1343 -
Terry had sent me an image of Fin # 817 that he scanned from the October 1964 issue of Between Ourselves in response to my curiousity concerning the first aircraft to fly in the new Air Canada livery. I used the image in my Wayne's Wings article but did not identify it as the aircraft in the picture as I did for Fin # 807 at the bottlom of the article. Alan does the final edit of each issue and adds an image to the header before sending it out.
Alan chose to use this image for NL # 1343 but misidentified the aircraft as Fin # 807. The next step in the process is to send out draft copies to Terry and myself to check for obvious errors before sending out the final. We missed it but a few readers caught it ...quickly.
Ken Pickford wrote -
The DC-8 in the opening photo can't be Fin #807 which was a Rolls-Royce Conway-powered DC-8-43, CF-TJG. The one in the photo is definitely a DC-8-54F combi with Pratt & Whitney JT3D turbofan engines. The engine nacelles are very different from the R-R Conways. Can also see the wider spacing between the two windows under the "C"and "N" in "CANADA" which are within the main deck cargo door. It could be Fin #817 (CF-TJQ) which was one of the -54F combis, in case the 807 reference was a typo..
Regards,
Ken
Peter Varty wrote -
The header photo in NetLetter 1343 is fin 817 not 807. I spotted this right away as the aircraft is a 50 series DC-8 as identified by its P&W engines. The 40 series had RR Conways. AC had 53 & 54 series 8's but the only one whose fin ended in a 7 was 817, a 54. These aircraft had a cargo door, but at various times they were operated as all passenger or all freight or combi configurations. For clarity fins 801-811 were 40 series,fins 812-819 were 54s, and fins 820-822 were 53's. Great work nonetheless... I enjoy every issue.
Peter
Thanks for your help guys, Wayne