DOWN MEMORY LANE: Was this the end of the line for Beverleys?

Three days following this earlier crash, on May 20, I was one of more than 50 passengers on one of two Beverleys returning to RAF Abingdon from Denmark.

Part-way through the flight the plane I was on made an unscheduled landing on a small grass civil airfield at Groningen in Holland, apparently for an ‘engine check’.

After about two hours the plane took off again to continue the homeward journey across the North Sea but after a short time smoke and flames were seen by all to be coming from the port inner engine.

The plane returned to Holland, making a very swift descent to a full emergency landing into Schipol airport, Amsterdam, attended by crash tenders, fire engines and ambulances where we all exited at great speed through a carpet of foam.

We spent the night in local hotels and were ferried home by another plane the next day.

I understand that a repair team came out later with a replacement engine to get the plane back to base.

The only detail of the plane I have is from a very poor newspaper photo from that time which shows the tail number 288.

My memory is that these two incidents were, for practical purposes, the end of the line for the Beverleys in the UK, at least for trooping, although I believe they continued for a number of years overseas.

It may be a coincidence but I never remember flying in one again although I do remember using the Argosy and the Hercules.

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