Carvair

Bog Man 1 · 01-11-2017 12:26am #1

When I was a child in the 1960,s I remember seeing a large plane flying low over rural County Carlow . I remember it being a car transporter and it was flying extremely low and had the high bump at the front where the cockpit was .I could see the windows and it was a lot lower than any other plane I had ever seen .The next day in the paper I saw where a similar plane had overshot the runway at Dublin Airport and ended out on a public road and it said the plane was having problems during the flight .
My memory is usually very good but I often wondered was it my imagination that this happened . I was talking to a neighbour and he remembered it too and his house faces a 600 foot high hill and he said it was lower than the hill which is my memory as well .

Did an Aer Lingus Carvair overshoot the runway in Dublin in the 1960,s and could we have seen it over County Carlow .

roundymac · 01-11-2017 9:10am

viation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19610919-0
This is the only one I can find, a DC4.

Tenger · 01-11-2017 9:34am

I doubt it honestly. If an aircraft landing at Dublin overshot due to difficulties then it may have crossed into Meath or Kildare. I just can’t see it traveling at low level all the way to Co.Carlow.

peter1892 · 01-11-2017 10:17am

There was a crash of a Bristol 170 at Dublin in 1967:
https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19670612-0

So that might be the 'overshoot' incident that was reported around the time, but obviously doesn't explain the sighting.

(Actually Roundymac's post above was the one that came to mind initially!)

fingal raven · 01-11-2017 4:29pm

A British United Carvair G-AOFW landing on runway 24 did overun the runway on landing, due to hydraulic failure and no brakes. It continued on the grass at the end of the runway at the 06 end, down a slope, through the perimeter fence and out onto the road. There was minimal damage and it was repaired by Aer Lingus and back in service in a short time. I doubt that this is the one you saw, could yours have been an Aer Lingus one en route to an airshow in Birr?

Bog Man 1 · 01-11-2017 6:13pm

fingal raven wrote: »

A British United Carvair G-AOFW landing on runway 24 did overun the runway on landing, due to hydraulic failure and no brakes. It continued on the grass at the end of the runway at the 06 end, down a slope, through the perimeter fence and out onto the road. There was minimal damage and it was repaired by Aer Lingus and back in service in a short time. I doubt that this is the one you saw, could yours have been an Aer Lingus one en route to an airshow in Birr?

I am fairly sure the one I read about in the paper involved minimal damage and no fatalities .
The possibility that the Aer Lingus one we saw flying low over Carlow was a different one to the one that ran off the end of the runway . I always wondered was it my imagination but my neighbour remembers it clearly and he said about the cockpit being raised up in a bump at the front . It was heading South but we are a long way from Birr and unlikely to have stayed at a low altitude for so long . If I remember right it was a Saturday when it passed over us and I think it was in a Sunday paper about the one running off the end of the runway .
(I was wearing a green jumper )

EchoIndia · 01-11-2017 8:59pm

fingal raven wrote: »

A British United Carvair G-AOFW landing on runway 24 did overun the runway on landing, due to hydraulic failure and no brakes. It continued on the grass at the end of the runway at the 06 end, down a slope, through the perimeter fence and out onto the road. There was minimal damage and it was repaired by Aer Lingus and back in service in a short time. I doubt that this is the one you saw, could yours have been an Aer Lingus one en route to an airshow in Birr?

The date of the incident mentioned above was 18 September 1965, a Saturday. I have seen a photo of this somewhere in the past but can't trace it now. As noted, damage was minimal if indeed there was any at all.

billie1b · 01-11-2017 11:38pm

EchoIndia wrote: »

The date of the incident mentioned above was 18 September 1965, a Saturday. I have seen a photo of this somewhere in the past but can't trace it now. As noted, damage was minimal if indeed there was any at all.

Correct, there’s a picture of it on Boards here somewhere, the aircraft landed between where Keelys is now and the main airport roundabout. Not a lot of people know but that crash was one of the reasons why the ‘spirit of the air’ monument was erected on the main airport roundabout, it was to proctect the planes coming in and out of Dublin.

EDIT : Sorry not the same accident

EchoIndia · 01-11-2017 11:52pm

billie1b wrote: »

Correct, there’s a picture of it on Boards here somewhere, the aircraft landed between where Keelys is now and the main airport roundabout. Not a lot of people know but that crash was one of the reasons why the ‘spirit of the air’ monument was erected on the main airport roundabout, it was to proctect the planes coming in and out of Dublin.

I think you are referring to the Starways DC-4 accident whereas I meant the Carvair overrun that Fingal Raven had identified.

billie1b · 02-11-2017 12:15am

EchoIndia wrote: »

I think you are referring to the Starways DC-4 accident whereas I meant the Carvair overrun that Fingal Raven had identified.

Yes sorry correct, i’m thinking of the 1961 DC-4 crash

Bog Man 1 · 03-11-2017 7:37pm

EchoIndia wrote: »

The date of the incident mentioned above was 18 September 1965, a Saturday. I have seen a photo of this somewhere in the past but can't trace it now. As noted, damage was minimal if indeed there was any at all.

When I saw the plane would have been around 1965 as we did not have a television till Easter 1966 and I am sure a large aeroplane on the Belfast road would have been on the news . It was a Saturday I saw it and the report of the overrun was in the Sunday paper and I remember it said that the plane was having some bother before it came into land . I always presumed that is why it was flying low over Carlow . When i talked to my neighbour he remembered the Bump at the front for the cockpit but did not realise it was to allow loading cars through the front . It is 52 years since we saw the plane and it came up in conversation earlier this year .

EchoIndia · 04-11-2017 12:20am

The overrrun by G-AOFW of runway 24 at DUB put the aircraft the best part of two miles from the Dublin-Belfast main road.

fingal raven · 04-11-2017 10:38am

Bog Man 1, I would be certain that the aircraft that you saw was neither the Carvair G-AOFW or the Starways DC-4 G-ARJY that crashed across the Dublin - Belfast road. The Starways Dc-4 only developed the problem while on approach and the BUA Carvair made a normal landing, just had no brakes ! There would be no reason for either to be flying over Carlow. My guess if you did see a Carvair is still that it was an Aer Lingus one en route to an airshow. Around that time one of the Aer Lingus Carvair Captains was very involved in General aviation and I certainly recall a Carvair at an airshow.

la ultima guagua · 04-11-2017 8:28pm

Newspapers reported that ( on 28/4/64 ) a Carvair ( the St Jarleth, EI-AMR ) blocked 'the main runway' on landing. The 6 occupants ( including one the Gay Byrne ) walked away.

On 19/9/61 a Starways DC-4 ( G-ARJY ) on a flight from Lourdes to Dublin overshot the runway and came to rest across the Dublin - Belfast road. There are reports that some of the 69 PAX + 4 crew sustained minor injuries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMFMZyHlJP8

https://comeheretome.com/2012/10/15/the-plane-that-landed-on-the-dublin-to-belfast-road/

Looking back over the newspaper archives its an eye opener to see just how many air accidents there were around the country back then given how few movements there would have been.

Carvair

Comments