Picture courtesy of Alan Eaton, U.K.

PLANE LANDS ON PLAIN

In January 1952, Jim Conner and crew were heading for Boscombe Down near Salisbury, England.  The area was covered by a snowstorm and there was no radar or other sophisticated approach system with landing lights.  The spire on Salisbury Cathedral had recently been rebuilt and aircraft warning lights installed.  After orbiting this light for some time, Conner saw what he thought were approach lights for the field, and he started a descent.  Unfortunately, those were not approach lights but were lights on one side of a funnel lighting system.  (The theory was that if a pilot picked up one of these strings of lights and flew on the inside, he would soon see the other line and this would guide him to the end of the runway.)  The landing appeared to be routine until touchdown when they went through a ditch, across a road and through another ditch, scattering haystacks as they rolled along.

Art Fisher was one of the scanners and remained at his station in order to shine a lamp on the number four propeller so that people would not walk into it.  This engine had been kept running so that electrical power would be available on the plane.  People were milling around in the dark, and could easily walk into the spinning blades.

A story is that an Englishman came up to the crew.  He welcomed them to England and, pointing off into the distance, told them the airport was about a quarter-mile straight ahead.  Then, with typical English dignity, he tipped his hat and strolled away.

Pierced Steel Planking (PSP) was put into place, the plane was towed to a hanger, washed down and flown back to Carswell by Walter Chambers about a week after the other planes returned.

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