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Contributing photographer, Steve Aubury, sent in photos of the following incident:
The story goes:-
Having arrived in Calgary in August 1977 to work in the oil industry, my first annual leave was due in August 1978. I was booked on a return flight from Calgary (YYC) to London Heathrow (LHR) departing Calgary on the evening of August 12, 1978. What followed could be said to be quite eventful.
I had settled in to my aisle seat on an Air Canada B-747 (C-FTOE) not far back from the rear of the right wing on the starboard side. The stewardess had been round with magazines and I had kindly taken the latest edition of 'Time' (possibly 'Newsweek') and had started reading an article about the Mormons of Utah whilst we awaited pushback and takeoff. Now the events of that takeoff are described in the attached newspaper article. Suffice it to say my reading of the article was interrupted by the aborted takeoff. I do remember we were told, by the pilot, that it was because a light had shown suggesting a door was not properly shut and that we would head back to the terminal to check if true or if the light was faulty. After a mere 20-25 minutes we pushed back again and resumed our departure; we did not stay long at the terminal. From memory, and again whilst trying to concentrate on the Mormon article, the second abort certainly felt as if we were almost at rotate speed. Thrown forward in our seats, in a far more severe braking action compared to the first abort, looking out of the window to my right I could see black objects flying away from the underside of the wing. At the time I made the quick assumption it was something from the flaps area, which was not the case, but instead shredded rubber from the tires.
We did make an attempt to taxi back to the terminal but gave up part way. I was unaware that the undercarriage was on fire, this only became apparent on deplaning. We waited on the aircraft for a few minutes awaiting stairs and we exited quietly and with little fuss. My camera was on hand and I took the time to take a couple of pictures. The first shows the smoking undercarriage, devoid of any rubber on one bank of tires, the second from further away shows us all walking peacefully away. Only once back in the terminal did it become apparent, to me at least, that Prince Philip was on this flight (in First Class) returning home following his attendance at the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton. Then it was an overnight wait in the terminal for us all whilst a replacement B-747 (C-FTOD) was available, around 9 hours from memory, before we all eventually departed on what was now a daytime flight on August 13th. Once through controls at Heathrow we passed quite a few newspaper men and I avoided them as I had yet to make a connection on to Manchester. Certainly it was headline news the next day, purely because of Prince Philip being aboard. Interestingly a few months later and at a party I got talking to an individual who was there at the time and who told me that we finally stopped by gouging a hole in the tarmac not very far short of the end of the runway. I showed him my picture of the burning bank of tires and he was astonished to realize that he was in it, the taller guy with the yellow cap! I think that tells the story as my memory has it. Quite honestly I think the majority of us all took it in our stride, but actually it was not far from resulting in something being quite a lot more severe, though I do think the British media (mostly the tabloids) went overboard with headlines like 'Prince Philip Escapes Blazing Jet'!
Kind regards,
Steve Aubury.
Click on the images below to view full size.
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