LWC REMEMBERS
David Love (A184) Pilot Officer, Royal Air Force Died 4th November 1967, aged 22
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Sternian Nigel Appleton reports on the tragic death of David Love who is buried at Terendal Mil Cemetary, Malaysia.
avid was stationed at RAF Changi on the island of Singapore where he was a navigator with 205 Squadron RAF. The Squadron operated the AVRO Shackleton MR 2, an anti-submarine and maritime reconnaissance aircraft. One of 205 Squadron’s duties was to provide Search and Rescue cover at RAF Gan: a remote island in the Maldives archipelago and a staging post for transport aircraft f lying between the Middle East and Far East stations. Aircraft and crews were detached from Singapore on a two-week rotation.
On the 4th of November 1967 Shackleton WL786 departed Gan en route for Singapore. On board were the normal crew of ten,
including David, plus one passenger on his way to his son’s wedding in Singapore. Some 5 hours into the f light, WL786 was cruising at an altitude of 9,000 feet approximately 120 miles west of Indonesia when the No4 engine failed. Due to a lack of evidence the exact cause of the failure can’t be determined though it is likely that a connecting rod punctured the side of the cylinder block and severed the oil line to the propeller feathering mechanism, causing an engine over-speed and f ire. The crew were unable to feather the propeller and it became a windmilling disc, generating a massive amount of drag and severe vibration. The engine f inally tore itself from its mountings and fell away from the aircraft but not before the starboard wing was well ablaze. The loss of the engine and the f ire made control of the aircraft exceptionally diff icult.
With only partial control of the aircraft available to him, the pilot attempted to ditch into the sea. Tragically only 3 people survived the impact: the f light engineer, one signaller and the passenger. They were rescued by the crew of the frigate HMS Ajax six hours later. David was, sadly, amongst those killed in the crash. Flying Off icer Peter Hearn RAF recalls that David had joined 205 Squadron very shortly before the accident, possibly only weeks, and as was quite often the case had been sent to Gan as a ’taster’ (to experience operational life in a Shackleton Squadron). Peter remembers the accident well, mainly because David had taken his place on that detachment, but also because he was a member of the crew that f lew out to drop blood and plasma to the RN frigate HMS Ajax that had rescued the survivors.
Having qualified as a navigator, David attended a course at the Maritime Operational Training Unit (MOTU) to learn the specific skills required to navigate a Maritime Recognisance aircraft hundreds of miles out to sea in the days long before modern inertial and GPS navigational aids. Pictured on the left here.
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