VH-EAJ

 

VH-EAJ

19630
746
1378
7821

City of Geelong
City of Broken Hill

VH-EAJ
08AUG68
Rolled out as 707-338C
VH-EAJ
12SEP68
First flown
VH-EAJ
25SEP68
Registered to Qantas Airways Ltd. Handed over to Qantas as "City of Geelong". Departed Seattle on delivery to London.
VH-EAJ
01OCT68
Departed London at 1750 as QF170/003, a migrant charter to Athens and Sydney.
VH-EAJ
03OCT68
Arrived Sydney at 1610. (TT: 38:56)
VH-EAJ
08JAN69
Bush fires swept across Avalon airfield while VH-EAJ and VH-EBU were on the ground in connection with crew training details. Thanks to the quick actions of aircrew and engineers, the aircraft were saved by moving them around the field to escape the fires. (Source: AHSA Journal Jan-Feb 1969)
VH-EAJ
26MAY69
Arrived in Warsaw at 0925 on a migrant charter. First Qantas aircraft to land in Warsaw.
VH-EAJ
01JUL72
Operated the inaugural service from Melbourne to Christchurch
VH-EAJ
12JUL74
Photograph.
VH-EAJ
15MAY75
Renamed "City of Broken Hill"
VH-EAJ
19MAR76
Departed Sydney at 1715 to Auckland, Brisbane, Auckland & Sydney on its last service.
VH-EAJ
24MAR76
Struck off Australian Register on sale to British Caledonian. (TT: 27874:01 Landings: 9387)
G-BDSJ
24MAR76
Registered to British Caledonian. Named "County of Fife"
G-BDSJ
25MAR76
Departed Sydney at 1300 on delivery to British Caledonian via Papeete and Miami.
G-BDSJ
-
Renamed "Loch Tay"
G-BDSJ
15NOV78
Leased to Nigeria Airways in BCAL colours with Nigeria titles
G-BDSJ
15DEC78
Returned to BCAL
G-BDSJ
03JAN79
Noted at Gatwick with a yellow tail
G-BDSJ
JUL79
Noted at Gatwick in full BCAL colours.
G-BDSJ
08JUN80
Noted at Heathrow operating a Kenya Airways cargo flight
5X-UBC
05OCT61
Sold to Uganda Airlines
5X-UBC
18FEB82
Heavy landing at Brussels. Repaired by Sabena and departed five days later
5X-UBC
JAN84
Noted carrying the name "Pearl of Africa" (AL206/15).
5X-UBC
29MAY88
Noted at Amsterdam with small "Leased to Ethiopian" titles (AL260/12)
5X-UBC
-
Returned to Uganda Airlines
5X-UBC
17OCT88
Struck a building while landing in fog at Rome. The aircraft was destroyed by impact and fire.


The aircraft took off from London-Gatwick (LGW) at 21:10 UTC on a flight to Rome (FCO) and Entebbe (EBB) . During descent to Rome, clearance was received for a descent to 4000 feet in preparation for an ILS approach to runway 16L. Visibility was deteriorating with RVR values of 400 m (point Alfa), 1000 m (point Bravo) and 350 m (point Charlie). A missed approach procedure was carried out at 00:05. A second approach was attempted, this time to runway 25. This was also abandoned due to poor visibility. RVR values for runway 34L (1600 m, 2000 m and 150 m resp. at Alfa, Bravo and Charlie) made the crew request radar vectoring to runway 34L. The aircraft was established on the localizer at 00:28. The aircraft continued to descend below the 420 feet MDA, although the runway visual markings hadn't been located. Because the flight crew failed to use the indispensable altitude callouts, the GPWS sounded unexpectedly. The aircraft impacted the roof of a house 1300 m short of the runway, 100 m right of the extended centreline. It continued and impacted another building 85 m further on. The Boeing then broke up and burst into flames.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "The crew's lack of adequate preparation in the procedure for a Non Precision Approach on runway 34L at Fiumicino Airport, especially in the matter of crew coordination and altitude callouts and their continued descent beyond MDA without having located the runway visual markings. Besides, the following factors may have contributed to the cause of the accident: 1) Presumed mental and physical fatigue, accumulated by the crew during the two previous landing approaches, which were also carried out in an environmental situation that was extremely unfavourable and operationally demanding.; 2) A configuration of the Altitude Instruments, which although sufficient for the approaches that were carried out, consisted of a single radio altimeter with the acoustic warning of the MDA crossing inoperative; 3) The attention of the crew was excessively concentrated on the luminous sources along runway 34L, instead of on the instrument readings. Furthermore (...) part of the Board of Inquiry as well as the representative of the Ugandan CA, disassociated themselves from the majority, during the phase of identifying the factors that may have contributed to causing the accident."

Crew: Fatalities: 7 / Occupants: 7
Passengers: Fatalities: 26 / Occupants: 45
Total: Fatalities: 33 / Occupants: 52

Source: Aviation Safety Network
https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19881017-0

 


 


Camera icon is linked to a photo.

 


 

Issue
Date
Remarks
3
28JAN18
Added a report on the crash from Aviation Safety Network.
2
09SEP06
Added a reference to bush fires at Avalon on 08JAN69.
1
27JUL06
Created individual page for this aircraft. Archived Updates for combined B707-338C/327C/349C list.

 

NOTES

1
There are four numbers in the second column of each header. These are:

1. The Constructor's Number (c/n or Manufacturer's Serial Number)
2. The Line Number (The order in which final assembly began)
3. Cumulative Line Number (The order in which the aircraft were rolled out)
4. Engineering Block Number (Customer Number)

Note: During early production, the Line Number was often the same as the Cumulative Line Number.

Source: "The Boeing 707 & 720" Air-Britain 1972.
2
Please forward any errors or updates to the Webmaster.
3
These sources are gratefully acknowledged.