No Land Rover has ever saved more
lives than this Carmichael fire tender
Airport fire trucks are the sort of
vehicles you hope will never be used in anger. Happily, that’s exactly what
happens in most cases. Although compulsory at licensed airports and airfields
in the UK, most enjoy a quiet life always primed and ready for action, but
happily, never required to demonstrate their capabilities.
No
Land Rover has ever saved more lives than this Carmichael fire tender
Most, but not all. In a quiet corner of a
field in Cambridge shire sits a Range Rover with real, dramatic history. If XJA
86S had been a human being, it would have been presented with the George Cross,
because this remarkable vehicle saved lives - possibly dozens of lives.
This 1978 Carmichael conversion fire tender
was the first fire engine on the scene of one of Britain's worst aviation
disasters - the 1985 Manchester Airport fire in which 54 people lost their
lives.
It should have been so different. The 131
passengers on board British Airtours Flight 28M on the morning of August 22
1985 were in holiday mood. In three hours they would be on the sun-drenched
Greek island of Crete. At 6.12am, as the plane was on the runway preparing to
take off, the passengers were startled by a loud bang. Those on the left-hand
side of the plane were alarmed to see a plume of black smoke coming from the
engine on the wing.
Airport
fire trucks are the sort of vehicles you hope will never be used in anger.
Take-off was aborted and the pilot
maneuvered the plane away from the runway and onto a taxiway. Fatefully, he
pointed the nose of the craft into the wind, which fanned the flames from the
engine, which ignited fuel leaking from the wing and turned the left- hand side
into a blazing inferno.
Thanks to its powerful 3.5-liter V8 engine,
the Range Rover was the first on the scene, arriving even before the emergency
chute was deployed. Its crew started spraying foam onto the blaze, slowing its
progress long enough for 82 passengers to escape as toxic smoke started to
enter the cabin.
Rear
locker opened to reveal what’s inside
Tragically, 54 passengers were not so
lucky, and lost their lives, but if it had not been for the Carmichael and its
quick-thinking crew, the death toll could have been much higher.
Two years later, the Range Rover was
retired from duty at Manchester International Airport and moved east to
Peterborough Business Airport, in the heart of the Cambridge shire fenlands,
where it has stayed ever since. And it still does what it was designed for -
always on hand to deal with the worst of eventualities. But these days, it is a
very different vehicle to the one that carried out its dramatic duties in 1985.
When it served at Manchester, it was a 4x6, with two powered axles, but in 1992
engineering manager Don Smith at Peterborough converted it into a 6x6, with all
three axles under power.
"New rules brought for licensed
airfields meant that fire engines used for off-terrain work had to have all
axles powered," he explained. "It meant that both rear axles had to
be modified, but I did it myself - and I've modified several others
since." Don, and his fellow engineers Henry Palmann and Joe Hobbs, are
true all-rounders. Besides carrying out regular services and overhauls on the
Range Rover, they are also responsible for the maintenance of the prop-driven
aircraft at the airport. And all three are trained firemen, too, ready to jump
into the Carmichael at the first suggestion of a possible accident.
Side
lockers opened to reveal what’s inside
They also have to be prepared for the
random tests conducted by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), who regularly
check the mettle of the firefighters.
"We have to be out of the hanger and
on the way within two minutes," says Joe. "Fortunately we haven't had
to fight any fires, but we do get called out to genuine emergencies fairly
regularly.
"They are usually due to pilot error
and we've seen one aircraft land upside-down and a few in nearby fields. There
are also the occasional engine failures, but so far we haven't had to deal with
fatalities.
"To make sure we know how to deal with
fires, we are tested once a year, when we have to tackle fires lit near the
runway."
The Range Rover itself has to be tested
every day. Although it is both tax and MoT-exempt, its roadworthiness has to
meet the more stringent requirements of the CAA. "We keep it very well
maintained," says Joe.
