Library Reference Number: 243
Fleet Air Arm Reflections
Although our Aircrew Association Library focuses on eye-witness accounts from military aircrew of all three services, so far, only three former RN members have been entered in our membership list. George Gibb (Index No.178; Bruce Galloway and now Bob Thirde whom we are delighted to welcome to our list of website authors.
The Fairey ‘Gannet’ was a British carrier-borne aircraft of the post World War Two era built and developed for the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm (FAA). Originally developed to meet the FAA’s anti-submarine warfare needs, the Gannet was later adapted for operations as an electronic countermeasure and carrier onboard delivery aircraft.
The Gannet AEW was a variant of the aircraft developed as a carrier-based airborne early warning platform. The following article describes a situation generally known throughout aircrew annals whereby the final flight is sometimes the fatal one, but in Bob’s case he missed the final one.
I joined the Royal Navy in January 1961 as an Officer Cadet at The Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth.
After six months basic training I moved on to Flying Training with the RAF at Linton-on-Ouse in Yorkshire to aim for pilot’s wings. At that stage there was a split to either more swept-wing jet training or to the turbo-prop Fairey Gannet at RNAS Culdrose, in Cornwall.
I qualified on the Gannet and gained further experience to fly the A.E.W. Mk.3 ( Airborne Early Warning ) with the Headquarters Squadron and eventually be assigned to a Flight on board ship. There were four Flights with four aircraft each and each Flight was attached to a particular Aircraft Carrier. There was one incident that sometimes comes to mind when I was on board ‘H.M.S. Eagle’ in 1965.
It was the final day’s flying before the ship sailed for Mombasa and I would be travelling back to the U.K. for a new appointment. On the flying programme for the final day’s operations I was down for the first launch of the day.
The night before I was in the bar. “Better stick to a small beer and turn-in early as first launch was at 0700” I thought. Just then the Senior Pilot approached me. “Bob, I’m taking you off the flying programme tomorrow – I’m sorry, that’s it, you’ve done your last sortie from the ship.” Rather surprised and a little upset as I was looking forward to my last catapult shot and deck-landing for some time I enquired why? “I’ve seen too many people have something happen or do something silly on their last trip so that’s that and the ‘boss’ agrees. Come, on the plus side, you can have a few more I’ll buy you a G&T or a beer.” I could see it was pointless to argue so I took up the offer and got slightly merry before turning in for the night. Next thing I was aware of through a thick head and bleary eye, lying in my bunk, was the whole ship was vibrating very heavily. The ship’s propellers were going ‘Full Astern.’
The cabin door was flung open and Dai Rees, one of our Observers shouted “The Gannet’s in trouble” and disappeared up to the Quarter Deck which is in the stern of the ship and open to the sea. Instantly awake now, I swiftly threw on my shorts, uniform shirt and sandals and bolted up the ladder to the weatherdeck. We could see the ship’s Wessex helicopter plane-guard hovering and someone being winched from the water. “We think they’ve all surfaced.” said someone. “Thank God.”
What had happened? The aircraft was loaded onto the bow catapult and was in the process of being tensioned and wound up to full power. The tail holdback failed prematurely and the aircraft proceeded down the catapult track under its own power without the launch force of the catapult. The pilot, Roger J-- throttled back to idle and stood on the brakes but was unable to stop the aircraft pitching over the front of the flight-deck into the sea. Roger and one of the Observers, Dusty M---, managed to exit the aircraft as it hit the water, but the second Observer, Mel H--- went down about 120 feet with the Gannet. He managed to free himself from the rear cockpit, however, and shot to the surface rupturing an eardrum in the process.
That would have been my last sortie had the Senior Pilot not removed me from the trip. We never discussed his decision to change the programme. Was it a premonition, was it an impulse? Nearly fifty years on, I wonder?
Postscript - Of all the A.E.W. [ Airborne Early Warning ] versions of the Gannet, 44 were built and 22 were lost to accidents or misfortune.