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Ill-Fated Vehicles, Craft & Vessels

Mikefule

Mikefule

Justified & Ancient
Joined
Dec 9, 2009
Messages
1,282
Location
Lincolnshire UK
I had never even heard of the Tenerife Airport Disaster (1972) but You Tube suggested video to me. I didn't watch the video but, out of curiosity, looked it up in Wikipedia.

Bizarrely, If you type just "Tene" in the search box, the suggested results are, in this order, Tene, Tennessee (despite it having a double n), Tenerife Airport Disaster, Tenet (film) and, fifth — two places behind the disaster — Tenerife itself. A real coup for the Tenerife Tourist Board!

Gist of it: foggy day, very busy airport, enormous misunderstanding, 2 planes crashed on the runway, 583 fatalities. Horrible.

The remarkable detail: Pan Am flight 1736 was a Boeing 747 registration N736PA. This very aeroplane was the first 747 to carry out a commercial flight (January 1970), the first 747 to be hijacked (August 1970), and was finally one of two Jumbos involved in the deadliest aircraft disaster in history (excluding of course 9/11).

Quite a career for one plane in just 3 short years.

Somehow reminds me of the career of the Mary Celeste, which was wrecked and abandoned, salvaged and restored, then featured in the famous disappearing crew mystery, and was later deliberately wrecked in an insurance fraud. Some craft are just plain unlucky.
 
I've known about the disaster ever since it happened (and I've flown into the island, most recently in 2018, but to Tenerife South) yet I'd never heard about this list of notable facts regarding N736PA (which is an odd oversight on my part.....:oops:).

And agreed, there is a similar 'trope feel' regarding that aircraft, and that surrounding the (apparently predestined-for-disaster) Mary Celeste.
 
See also Class 40 locomotive D326/40126, which was:
  • the locomotive involved in the Great Train Robbery
  • the locomotive on which a driver was killed whilst trying to clean it and coming in contact with overhead lines
  • was hauling the "Mid-day Scot" on Boxing day 1962 when it collided with the rear of another train killing 18
  • was involved in a "runaway" incident at Birmingham New Street when a guard was injured
1641898287536.png
When it was removed from service it was moved to the head of the queue for dismantlement (after the NRM refused to take it).

From a post in the thread here (by 'Saxonia' (great username if you know your Class 40s)):

Quoted excerpts from an article by C H Wrate, formerly of New Scotland Yard, in "Rail Enthusiast", - November, 1983.
"Even before the Great train Robbery, D326 had started to gain its reputation as a "rogue engine". On Boxing Day 1962, the locomotive (then just 2 years old) was hauling the "Mid-Day Scot" when it ran into the back of the 1645 Liverpool-Birmingham express between Winsford station & Coppenhall Jct, Cheshire. 18 passengers were killed & some 33 injured on the Birmingham bound train.
A year after the robbery - in August 1964 - a secondman was standing on the roof of the loco at Crewe when he came into contact with the overhead power cable & was electrocuted.
In August 1965, there was yet another incident. The loco was heading towards Birmingham New St station when the brakes failed. D326 was fast approaching 50 mph as it sped towards the station. However, the quick action by some of the signalling staff, realising what was happening, diverted the loco onto another line, where it smashed into the back of a goods train, injuring the guard".
Click to expand...
 
McAvennie said:
Small clarification, the Tenerife crash killing 500+ was 1977, not 1972.
Click to expand...

Correct. I remember this well as I was in Auckland, New Zealand, the day this happened with my mother & grandmother, due to fly home to Sydney the following day. My grandmother who was terrified on the flight over (her first flight ever) was on the verge of a nervous breakdown seeing this on the news. My mother had to give her valium to get her on our flight the next afternoon.
 
CALGACUS03 said:
See also Class 40 locomotive D326/40126, which was:
  • the locomotive involved in the Great Train Robbery
  • the locomotive on which a driver was killed whilst trying to clean it and coming in contact with overhead lines
  • was hauling the "Mid-day Scot" on Boxing day 1962 when it collided with the rear of another train killing 18
  • was involved in a "runaway" incident at Birmingham New Street when a guard was injured
View attachment 50549
When it was removed from service it was moved to the head of the queue for dismantlement (after the NRM refused to take it).

From a post in the thread here (by 'Saxonia' (great username if you know your Class 40s)):
Click to expand...
D326 was not, apparently, the loco involved in the Coppenhall Junction crash (it was D215 Aquitania)
 
ghughesarch said:
D326 was not, apparently, the loco involved in the Coppenhall Junction crash (it was D215 Aquitania)
Click to expand...
Ah, thanks for that - I stand corrected! :)

To be honest, I hadn't associated that accident with D326 until I read that thread (I already knew about the other three incidents that had occurred with it and it's subsequent reputation).

I'd go to that thread and point out their mistake; but unfortunately it's labelled "Not open for further replies."

Again, thanks for the heads-up; it'll hopefully prevent me looking like a dick somewhere else were I to start spouting spurious information!
 
When I was driving charter buses, the company I worked for had a number of Setras, German machines with Murrican engines and drive trains. Everyone liked driving those, since they were very modern and optimized for the sort of work we did. Most of the buses they owned at the time were basically standard issue Greyhound types, some of which had upgrades for use in the tour business. They were designed to go two million miles with good maintenance and regular abuse. The Setras were much more complicated, like a pricier German car, and fun to drive. All those beasts, of any brand, are so complex that they develop distinct personalities after a few years. Some are very reliable and free of weird glitches, some are usually a pain in the ass one way or another.

One of the first Setras the company acquired had a beautiful blue paint job. People often commented on it. The thing was, however, haunted or something. It had numerous electrical gremlins the mechanics were unable to exorcise, and just plain stupid things happened to it, several time a year. One driver who eventually was fired for several reasons, had trouble staying awake. He drove it into some kind of massive highway sign, causing extensive damage. It would break down in very unhandy locations. The last time I drove it, another company driver backed into it at a ski resort, for no apparent reason. He jumped out, blaming everyone else even though a parking lot attendant was giving him frantic signals to stop. I was in the driver's seat, laying on the horn as he got too close. Finally, I said to the guy, "There was one bus in this whole lot that was moving, and you were driving it." On another ski trip I drove it on, it spent a few days at a radiator shop after it sprung a massive leak for no apparent reason.

Not too long before I "retired" from the driving job, we had a driver meeting with some people pretty high up in the company. The main dispatcher told us (really for the benefit of the newer drivers) to always call in and talk to a mechanic whenever there was any sort of problem. Those guys were really good at talking just about anyone through the process of figuring out what was wrong and what to do about it. The dispatcher then told us about an incident with an electrical problem that would have been fairly easy to deal with, but the driver chose to press on even though the bus's alternator was cooking the batteries. Passengers complained of a rotten egg smell, and before it was over with a few went to the emergency room. That was a terrible, stupid decision on the part of the driver, of course, but the dispatcher said to us, "Guess which bus it was." I've often wondered where that one ended up.
 
There's a saying round here with the boat lads, "Once a ship tastes blood you will never cure it"
in other words once someone as been killed or injured on a boat or ship it will keep happening.
8 people died during the Titanic's construction.
:omr:
 
Yes, RaM, it reminds me of the Royal Navy submarine HMS Thetis which was lost on its sea trials shortly before the start of WW2 on 1st June 1939. A torpedo tube was accidentally flooded and caused the bow to sink onto the seabed. Incredibly, even though the stern remained above the surface , only 4 excaped and 99 were lost including many civilian personnel from the design team and builders etc. It was salvaged and re-comissioned as HMS Thunderbolt in 1940 and was lost with all hands in the Med in 1943 after being depth charged by an Italian ship.
 
RaM said:
8 people died during the Titanic's construction.
Click to expand...
I expect it was common at the time to lose lives constructing a massive ship.
A very large, dangerous, workplace with lots of heavy and/or pointy things being around, and various levels of inexperience amongst the workforce.
You only ever hear about the ones associated with disasters though, because headlines.
 
Mikefule said:
I had never even heard of the Tenerife Airport Disaster (1972) but You Tube suggested video to me. I didn't watch the video but, out of curiosity, looked it up in Wikipedia.

Bizarrely, If you type just "Tene" in the search box, the suggested results are, in this order, Tene, Tennessee (despite it having a double n), Tenerife Airport Disaster, Tenet (film) and, fifth — two places behind the disaster — Tenerife itself. A real coup for the Tenerife Tourist Board!

Gist of it: foggy day, very busy airport, enormous misunderstanding, 2 planes crashed on the runway, 583 fatalities. Horrible.

The remarkable detail: Pan Am flight 1736 was a Boeing 747 registration N736PA. This very aeroplane was the first 747 to carry out a commercial flight (January 1970), the first 747 to be hijacked (August 1970), and was finally one of two Jumbos involved in the deadliest aircraft disaster in history (excluding of course 9/11).

Quite a career for one plane in just 3 short years.

Somehow reminds me of the career of the Mary Celeste, which was wrecked and abandoned, salvaged and restored, then featured in the famous disappearing crew mystery, and was later deliberately wrecked in an insurance fraud. Some craft are just plain unlucky.
Click to expand...
Here is a video about the disaster, by one of my favorite Youtubers.

 
ghughesarch said:
D326 was not, apparently, the loco involved in the Coppenhall Junction crash (it was D215 Aquitania)
Click to expand...
My sources have it down as D326 (J A B Hamilton, Railway Accidents of the 20th Century)
 
Interestingly, the official accident report doesn't list the number of either loco involved. This is unusual compared to other similar reports I've read. Most of the ones I've read previously are steam era - maybe at some point there was a change of policy to avoid identifying specific vehicles?

https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/MoT_Coppenhall1962.pdf
 
That's mentioned in the first page of the discussion thread I posted a link to - it's suggested that the loco numbers are irrelevant to the accident report and therefore omitted.
 
ghughesarch said:
That's mentioned in the first page of the discussion thread I posted a link to - it's suggested that the loco numbers are irrelevant to the accident report and therefore omitted.
Click to expand...
I did read the thread. My point is that its actually unusual for the locos and even carriages specifically involved not to be identified.

I've read a lot of those reports over the years, it being a specific area of interest for me. Here is one sample where the loco was named, only 5 years earlier:

https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/MoT_Lewisham1957.pdf
 
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