****HISTORICAL**** PWA Nord 262 forced landing (?)

[iflyforpie]

Ok.... this was a long time ago and nearly as long for me hearing about it..... probably from some back issue flying magazine lying around in a flying club I visited doing build up.

The only reason I don't write it off as fading memories is because it's the first time I'd ever heard of that aircraft type and PWA did operate them. The scenario from memory was engine inlet icing and a forced landing somewhere in the Lower Mainland at night.

Air Safety Network has no hull-loss incidents in Canada for that type.

Am I even close? Any confirming details would be great.

[GyvAir]

No proof of anything one way or the other, but according to this, they operated 4 airframes and all 4 appear to have gone on to post PWA action.

http://rzjets.net/aircraft/?page=1&typeid=262
http://www.pwareunion.com/images/aircraft/PW_Fleet.pdf

[Steamchicken]

Yes it was a Nord and it was a long time ago. My old boss Stew Spurr was the Cap. Double engine failure into a school field or park in Richmond. As Stew explained to me "the only place without lights". They even missed the goalposts.

[fleetcanuck]

I do not remember the details, other than it ended up in a strawberry patch or some such thing short of runway 26. I think all on board were ok. Probably happened either side of 1970 by a few years.

Sorry I cannot be more specific.

[Antique Pilot]

I do not remember the details, other than it ended up in a strawberry patch or some such thing short of runway 26. I think all on board were ok. Probably happened either side of 1970 by a few years.

Sorry I cannot be more specific.

The incident happened on Dec 27, 1970. Aircraft was CF-BCR. The left engine flamed out at 13,000' 40 miles east of CYVR. In descent to CYVR the right engine flamed out. They landed near the intersection of # 3 Rd and Steveston Hwy (spelling ?) 4 miles SE of CYVR. Capt Stewart Spur, F.O Ron Jones.

AP

[iflyforpie]

Thanks a lot. I remember that phrase 'the only place without lights' quite vividly.

So any more info? Photos of a large turboprop covered in mud in a field? It flying out or otherwise being disassembled to go back into service? It's just bizarre that Google didn't come up with more on such a major incident.

Yeah, you spelled it right AP..... I lived at #2 and Steveston for a while..... There are still a few places south of Steveston Hwy that you could set a plane down but they are getting fewer and fewer.

[Antique Pilot]

Thanks a lot. I remember that phrase 'the only place without lights' quite vividly.

So any more info? Photos of a large turboprop covered in mud in a field? It flying out or otherwise being disassembled to go back into service? It's just bizarre that Google didn't come up with more on such a major incident.

Yeah, you spelled it right AP..... I lived at #2 and Steveston for a while..... There are still a few places south of Steveston Hwy that you could set a plane down but they are getting fewer and fewer.

My very basic hand written few sentences in the report says that the aircraft sustained substantial damage. The writing is hard to read but I now see that the aircraft was cruising at 13,000'. So it makes sense that it had departed CYVR and was flying eastbound when the problems started. I can only assume that the aircraft would have been dismantled to get it out of the field.

My information came from: "Summary of Aircraft Accidents", Pacific Region for 1970. The summary also says that there were 115 accidents in the Pacific region in 1970; 63 fatalities, 36 injured; 6 missing persons.

AP

[Safe-T]

Hi all,
We have added the accident now:
http://aviation-safety.net/database/rec ... 19701228-2

An ICAO document stated 28 December as the date. Not sure which one is correct, 27 or 28.

[azimuthaviation]

There are still a few places south of Steveston Hwy that you could set a plane down but they are getting fewer and fewer.

Isnt all that land south of Steveston (east of #2 road) protected by the "agricultural reserve" or something of that sort? I thought the reason there are acres upon acres of berry and pumpkin fields right next to high priced densely populated residential land s that it cant be developed?

[pdw]

I remember that phrase 'the only place without lights' quite vividly.

The lights would have highlighted level for that "place" very well.

The amazing thing is no one was even hurt. What time of day ?

"Acres of berry and pumpkins" ... for a forced approach in an airliner ... sounds like a bit more open an area than "a schoolyard" and "avoided the goalposts".

[Antique Pilot]

I remember that phrase 'the only place without lights' quite vividly.

The lights would have highlighted level for that "place" very well.

The amazing thing is no one was even hurt. What time of day ?

"Acres of berry and pumpkins" ... for a forced approach in an airliner ... sounds like a bit more open an area than "a schoolyard" and "avoided the goalposts".

The original poster said it was at night. I was involved in aviation in another part of the country at the time and I definitely recall the hangar talk about it happening at night. The ICAO report says that there were only 4 crew members on board and it was a ferry flight. Perhaps that is a reason why it didn't get a lot of media attention.

AP

[Antique Pilot]

I met the F.O. from the Nord 262 incident in 1980. I was interested in antique aircraft at the time and he owned a Howard DGA 15P.

The Nord 262 involved in the incident CF-BCR serial # 16 has been on display at the Musee de l'Air, Le Bourget, Paris France since 1998.

AP

[xsbank]

Yes, Stu Spurr. A gentleman for sure, I worked for him for a time too. He died from cancer and we had a roast/sending off shortly before he died. I knew him professionally as an excellent pilot with a tremendous sense of humour. He told the Nord story with much humour and had us all in stitches when he described how he knocked on the door to a farmhouse to ask to use the phone...

Many more on here knew him socially, you will get more info on him from them. The real story is the people.

[Cat Driver]

A great guy and a great pilot.

Stew checked me out on the Twin Otter at Air West when I took over the chief pilot position because he was leaving.

That was back in the days before CAR's and all the tons of paper work and all the B.S. requirements that T.C. thinks up today.

[iflyforpie]

The real story is the people.

Of course it is. When I posted this I wasn't even sure it was a real incident or not.... I'm glad I was able to rekindle some memories for those who had a personal connection to the people in this event.

[pdw]

And so it begins ...

He told the Nord story with much humour and had us all in stitches when he described how he knocked on the door to a farmhouse to ask to use the phone...

There was no 911 yet in '70, and out in the country it was only the old rotary-dial phones. "To ask to use the phone" would have gone something like this : 'we just crash landed on your farm, I need to use your phone'; ... no problem.

For Fire Department and Police every phone had a sticker, or just dialed zero for the operator to connect. It happened enough times in those years (ie neighborhood car accidents or fires) where a person would run up to the nearest house (happened at our place too once-in-a-while) to use the phone for reporting their emergency.

The crew beats the odds incredibly landing in a built up area, then must still go looking for someone's door to knock on with not enough electric power left aboard this giant aircraft to make radio contact with the nearby airport (police station and fire hall not any farther away). That is kind of funny then, esp if nobody sees them there in the middle of the city until they themselves called. But then it's also quickly back to reality, ... in thinking what happens to so many crashes in remote areas where it takes a while to find survivors or (sometimes) for them to find their own help first.

[iflyforpie]

No 911 in 1970? It wasn't until 1990 we got 911 where I lived. I still remember the number to Prince George dispatch.. 1-562-7241. (no area codes required back in the day within area.... and you could four digit dial local numbers).

[pdw]

The four digit local calling, where 0040 was Grandma's house ( containing the painful 3X full circle for the zeros); how many times the fingers would fumble it on the way around, the stiff bearing of the old steel dialer grinding away the whole time. Was a privilege to have more ones and twos in your number.

And then there was the party line, two or three houses on one line. In an emergency (likely up until 70 still) you were always hoping the neighborhood wasn't in the middle of an argument whose turn it was, or which call was more important. Compared to those early phones/systems, the basic aircraft radio was considered a high tech way to communicate; ... just not on that night I guess.