PBY accident around Hawaii in the mid 80s.

[bombadier29]

I remember a story of a PBY on its way from Malaysia or Indonesia to the US around 1985 or 1986. It left Hawaii headed for the mainland and the crew had to put it down in the water with mechanical trouble. It sank but the crew was rescued.

Does anybody else remember this incident and know which airplane it was? What is the story behind it?

[Jollygreenslugg]

Bombardier29,

Sure it wasn't N5404J? Lost on 15 Jan 1994.

It had been purchased by the Catalina Club of New Zealand, and was in the process of being flown there, when it had an engine failure and couldn't maintain altitude. Put down but sank later. All crew rescued.

Here's the basic report summary;
http://aviation-safety.net/database/rec ... 19940115-1

Here it is the previous year;
http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1243143/

*edit* And a newsletter with a report with details. Item No 22;
http://www.pbycia.org/Newsletters/1994-01i.html

Cheers,
Matt

Last edited by Jollygreenslugg on Thu Oct 18, 2012 6:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[bombadier29]

Matt

No it wasn't that one. But the circumstances sound about the same!

[Warbirdnerd]

How about this one?
http://www.warbirdregistry.org/pbyregis ... f9757.html

[bombadier29]

That sounds like it might be the one. I wonder what major pieces made it to the Alaska museum? The last time I was there it seems like there were PBY parts scattered all over the place.

[JohnH]

Reminded me of this story from 1986

http://www.usni.org/magazines/navalhist ... by-odyssey

[RNDMTRS4EVR]

I remember hearing a story like this, but I thought it was a Grumman Goose that was lost. I think was the first airplane that the producers got for the tv series "Tales of the Golden Monkey". They were flying the airplane out to start filming some where and had engine trouble and had to put it down in the ocean, I don't know if it was damaged on landing or just took on water and sank. But i did hear the crew was ok. How true this story is I do not know, I was pretty young back when this supposedly happened.

Scott....

[Warbirdnerd]

Reminded me of this story from 1986

http://www.usni.org/magazines/navalhist ... by-odyssey

Martin Caiden rode with Connie on this trip and wrote an excellent three part article called "More than one way to skin a Cat" for EAA's Sport aviation. I believe it is availible to EAA members as part of their online archive.

[bombadier29]

Oddly enough, Connie now owns the Franks PBY that sank in the harbor. It's painted up as the flying turtle now and was at Oshkosh in the last few years. I believe Bob Franks died of cancer aseveral years back.

I knew Connie in the days past but its probably been over 40 years since I last saw or talked to him. I would think he's getting pretty long in the tooth by now, as we all are. I knew his brother Bill also. But he's been dead for thirty years or so I'd think.

[David Legg]

A couple of comments about the various Catalinas mentioned above...

C-FSAT - the one that started the thread. This did indeed put down on the water because of mechanical problems. These apparently involved the undercarriage so presumably one or all of the wheels would not come down correctly although as there is an emergency lowering procedure I do not know why it was not, or could not be, used. Unfortunatley, the Catalina hit a partially submerged reef after landing and it was this that caused the airframe to sink. However, the terminal damage was caused by a botched recovery when crane strops ripped through the hull fore and aft of the wing lift struts. This wrote the airframe off. In addition to some parts going to the AAHS OA-10A project in Anchorage, Alaksa, other major parts went to New Zealand to help restore the centre section of VH-SBV at the RNZAF Museum and to N84857 in Montana (now at Whidbey Island, Wa.). C-FSAT was actually built as a RCAF Canso A by Boeing of Canada, serial 9757.

C-FOWE (now N222FT Flyin' Turtle) - in one of the links below, it says that this sank at Plymouth, England after a hard landing. What happened was that at the end of an extended flare, the first touch down occurred some considerable way down the landing area after which the aircraft yawed sharply to the right and then hit first an inflatable buoy then a much more solid buoy that removed a substantial part of the port wing including the float. The Catalina then briefly left the water before settling heavily on the port bow. It then partially sank. At some point in all this, the nose wheel doors departed the airframe due to hydrodynamic forces and increased engine power was applied. In due course it was recovered and repaired locally. It too was originally a RCAF Canso A (11074) but Canadian-Vickers-built.