Date:	Saturday 16 June 1962
Time:	day
Type:	Handley Page Victor B.1
Owner/operator:	10 Sqn RAF
Registration:	XA929
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 6 / Occupants: 6
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	RAF Akrotiri (AKT/LCRA) -   Cyprus
Phase:	Take off
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Akrotiri (AKT/LRCA)
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
The pilot attempted take off from Akrotiri, Cyprus with full flaps extended. He did not abandon take off until the aircraft was in the overshoot area and the chute was deployed but was torn away. The aircraft left the ground for short distances and then broke up and caught fire.

According to an eywitness report:

" I refer to Victor XA929 lost on the 16th of June 1962. It was said at the time that the air was insufficiently dense for the aircraft to get enough lift .The temperature at the time being very hot. Bearing in mind it was a "lone ranger" sortie, with the aircraft on a full fuel load. The pilot realised he wasn't going to make it, and abandoned take off. The rest is history. I remember the great weight of sadness that hung over Cottesmore at the time. At that time I was an aircraft electrician on 10 Squadron"

Per an extract from the official Board of Inquiry report:

"R/T procedures were normal and the captain, who had been given choice of take-off direction, taxied to the marshalling point for Runway 11. Although he had been cleared as No. 1 for take-off he elected to let a Meteor take-off first on Runway 29, after which he lined up on Runway 11 and started his take-off run. The latter appeared normal until the aircraft had run some 5,500 – 6,500 feet when the air traffic controller and the deputy SATCO thought that the nose should have been raised and because of this, the aircraft’s progress was watched closely. With about 1,200 feet of the runway left, the starboard wheel passed on to the runway shoulder but after travelling 200 feet in this position, it looked as if the aircraft would become airborne as the nose wheel was not in contact with the ground and the main undercarriage bogies were in the ‘free in air position’ trailing the ground. However, with only 650 feet of the runway left, the port wheel also passed on to the runway shoulder and when almost opposite the runway controllers’ caravan the tail parachute came out, did not properly deploy and left the aircraft immediately. The aircraft then ran for 450 feet with all wheels making contact with the ground but all wheel marks ceased just before the aircraft crossed the taxiway adjacent to the end of Runway 11. Victor XA929 was clear of the ground for a distance of 100 feet before both main landing gears touched on the far side of the taxiway. From this point it careered through the overshoot area brushing a barbed wire fence and undergrowth with, at times, all wheels clear of the ground until finally it struck the ground in a nose-down attitude with the starboard wing slightly down, some 1800 feet beyond the end of the runway. The aircraft broke up rapidly starting with the undercarriage, front radome, main flap and cockpit. Break up of the fuselage continued and finally the separated main planes, engine and tail unit came to rest some 1600 feet from the first impact, 3,400 feet beyond the end of Runway 11. Shortly after the first impact fire broke out which rapidly spread from the wreckage trail to the surrounding scrub and trees. No further R/T calls were made after take-off clearance had been obtained."

All six crew were killed:

Flt Lt G Goatham, 27. Captain/Pilot
Flt Lt D Brown, 28. Co-pilot
Flt Lt J Gray. 36. Navigator
Flg Off A Mitchell. 21. Co-Navigator
Flg Off A Pace. 24. Flight Engineer Air Electronics Officer
Master Tech D Smith. 40. Crew Chief

The co-pilot had banged out but the ejection was outside the seat limits and he did not survive. Their names are forever imortalised in 3 locations. Dhekalia Military Cemetary - Cyprus (where they are buried), RAF Cottesmore station church and The National Memorial Arboretum - Staffordshire.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.208 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Handley Page Victor: The Crescent-Winged V-Bomber (Aerofax)
3. http://www.ukserials.com/losses-1962.htm
4. http://web.archive.org/web/20160303210250/http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/Aircraft_by_Type/Victor.htm
5. https://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/428875-information-victor-xa929-crash-cyprus-16th-june-1962-a.html
6. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AVIA 5/41/S3035: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C6578815
7. http://rafforum.activeboard.com/t32964197/16th-june-1962-victor-b1-xa-929-10-sqn-akrotiri/
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handley_Page_Victor#Accidents_and_incidents

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
22-Aug-2011 08:16	Uli Elch	Updated [Operator, Location, Country, Phase, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
07-May-2012 13:57	harro	Updated [Source, Embed code, Narrative]
17-Oct-2013 17:15	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Departure airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative]
10-Oct-2017 17:00	Anon.	Updated [Narrative]
14-Feb-2020 22:06	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Source]