I was particularly interested to see the account of the aircraft that hit the sea off Cyprus as I had been recalling this tale in a 'war story' session only a couple of days ago. The incident must have happened around March or April 1966. The aircraft was TG575 ( a pig of a ship that would not fly with tip tanks fitted) and the area was, I believe, off Dhekelia. I was one of the riggers sent from Nicosia to recover 575 from Akrotiri (We had to sort out the undercarriage and do retractions because, after losing both inboard engines, there was no hydraulic power available [pumps on 2 & 3 engines only] and the gear was blown down using the emergency pneumatics. As I recall, both inboard engines sheared the reduction gear (not surprising!) and the 2 outers were overboosted to get enough height to reach Akrotiri. There was much debate back at Nicosia (at least amongst we lower orders) as to whether the Captain should be court martialled or given a Green Endorsement. In the end the powers that were decided to CM him and he got a fine (£34-0-6 rings a bell) for damaging Hastings Aircraft TG575, the property of Her Majesty. About 20 flying hours later, TG575 landed at El Adem and, as you report elsewhere, the undercarriage collapsed. As an apocryphal tailpiece to this story, 575 was dragged off the runway at El Adem and dumped somewhere in sight of the transit aircraft dispersal. Some months later a lady being repatriated to UK was boarding a Hastings for the flight to Cyprus when she spotted the remains of 575. "Isn't that one of these" she asked one of the movers. "Yes" he said. "Then I'm not going" she said and promptly disembarked. The remains of 575 were subsequently moved to a less conspicuous position!

John Luxton

I think we can now establish that the aircraft below that hit the sea was TG575 [ http://handleypagehastings.activeboard.com/t57702765/a-hastings-c1-that-hit-the-mediterranean-and-lived-to-tell-t/ ]

Photo with thanks by Tony King