Tony Main - When the ‘Red Eye Special’ - goes with a BANG!

The Red Eye Special was the Sunday Night Freighter leaving Lyneham around 2200 hours with a planned arrival at Akrotiri, Cyprus, just after airfield opening time.

A rarity, we were a five man crew and it was a pure freighter.  It was a typical winters Sunday night at Lyneham airfield, dark, windy and sheeting rain across the dispersal.  Arriving in Ops, we were delighted to find an absence of route checkers, as this schedule was one of their favourites to jump a crew.

All the planning was complete, and with the usual volumes of paperwork and the route bags, we boarded the chilly, damp crew bus for the dispersal to board an even damper and chilly Albert. The joy of those cold canvas seats!  A welcome hot cup of tea awaited and we began the pre-flight checks ready for departure.  Albert was cooperative and started without any snags, not even a bleed air leak and we departed chocks on time.

A Sunday night departure was usually very easy and air traffic quickly had us on a direct route to join French airspace without any delays. The usual transit across France, Corsica and Sardinia led us to the Mediterranean airspace, star filled and preparing for the new day.  

The aroma from the Galley meant that breakfast was on its way and as we transited south of Crete, the big red ball began to rise, hence the Red Eye Special!!  A night without sleep and eyes full of that gritty feeling are always helped by the sunrise!!  

As we cleared the breakfast trays, a very loud bang was heard and the aircraft began a very steep climb. We had not seen this one in the simulator. The pilots struggled to push the control column forward and managed to regain control.  I put the periscopic sextant up to check the rear of the aircraft to see that an MS26 Dinghy had wrapped itself around the port elevator.  With some more pushing, the Captain got us into a nose down attitude and with a gentle yaw, managed to get the MS26 sliding off the elevator.  As it slid off the port side, there was another very loud bang as the Dinghy’s air bottle hit the port side of the aircraft.  Following a further control check we continued, somewhat shaken, safely towards Akrotiri.

On landing and arriving in dispersal, the ground crew greeted us, ‘do you know you have a big hole in the side behind the port passenger door!!!

So that was the conclusion of what we thought was going to be a peaceful freighter to Akrotiri on the Red Eye Special!  Subsequent investigation found that the Dinghy panel had been incorrectly secured, the panel lifted in flight and the airflow sucked the dinghy out!  Not the Red Eye Special we had expected.  Needless to say the wind down beer was really enjoyed at 8 o’clock in the morning as we completed the flight safety paperwork.

Perhaps you have a tale to tell, either in the air or on the ground:  if so please contact the Web Master with your jottings.  

Tony Main