TG577 crashed at Abingdon in 1965 with the loss of all on board, this is still the RAF's worst peactime UK accident. The elevator failed shortly after take off, although the Hastings gave valuable service one area that caused concern was the failure of the elevator bolts which resulted in several accidents, all fatal.

I recall this statement from one such Flight Engineer being put into practice before each flight and on more than two occasions I recall faults being found.

"As a new Flight Engineer at Colerne (36 Squadron) I flew to Malta with the crew of TG577. I remember very well being told by the Engineer on the crew to always put your shoulder under the elevator and check for movement. He was very insistent on doing this during the trip. I cannot think that he would not have noticed if anything was amiss before the last flight. Whatever did happen was not detectable on a pre-flight, his way of checking was to put a lot of pressure and movement directly under the brackets"

Thanks to Peter M