Ken Topaz, of Belmesthorpe, recalls ejecting from the plane he was flying in at RAF Watton in MAy 1966
10.44am on Tuesday, May 3, 1966. A time that Ken Topaz will never forget for all the wrong reasons because it was at that exact moment he ejected from an English Electric Canberra Bomber plane at RAF Watton.
With the flames and smoke of the burning aircraft in front of him, the first thing he did was check his watch.
Ken, then a 32-year-old RAF air electronics officer, who trained people in the use of radar jammers, was travelling to Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton in Somerset for training. Also in the plane was the pilot and a Canadian Air Force officer navigator.
The plane took off as normal but then, in a cruel twist of fate, they were forced to return to base as Ken, now 85-years-old, picks up the story.
“We took off at 10am and were climbing to an altitude of about 30,000 feet,” he said.
“But then I discovered there was a problem with some of my radar jamming equipment so the captain headed back to base.
“In order to do some training, the captain decided to carry out a simulated engine out approach where he put the throttle back to one of the engines, with only one of them at full power.
“I was doing my pre-landing checks and then I heard the radar controller say ‘you are one mile from touch down, look ahead and land’.
“At this point, the navigator pointed out the airspeed indicator in the cockpit was showing about 82 knots [about 94mph] which was much too slow for the weight of the aircraft.
“We didn’t say anything and I remember looking through the cockpit, seeing the ground and the captain applied full power very rapidly.
“By now the plane was very low and it rolled rapidly to starboard [right], flicked back to port [left] causing the wing tip to strike the
ground.
“The aircraft rolled almost vertical before cartwheeling and destroying itself just to the left of the runway.
“There was a bang and the next thing I knew, I was sitting on my parachute.”
Ken ejected with the plane almost on its side and lost consciousness for a few seconds before miraculously landing on his feet with no forward motion as he put one hand out to stop himself from falling.
Being on the high side of the plane, Ken ejected skywards.
He estimated he was catapulted between 20 and 30 feet into the air with his parachute failing to open because the altitude was so low.
“I wasn’t frighted because it happened so quickly,” he reflected.
“I could feel something was going wrong but it must have been over in three to five seconds.
“The first thing I did was to look at my watch and that’s why I’ll never forget the time of the impact.
“There was no reason for that, other than I felt it was important.
“I remember feeling no pain at the time although that was probably because of the shock.
“My squadron commander appeared out of the smoke, paused for a moment and then ran past me to the navigator who was just behind and looking far worse than
me.
“The station dentist also appeared on the scene waving a knife.
“I was warning him not to damage Government property but he still cut me out of my harness.”
The pilot and navigator had both died in incident.
Ken had broken ankles, pelvis, right hip and suffered damage to his back.
He said the worse part of the crash was the bumpy ambulance journey to the RAF hospital in Ely.
After 18 months of treatment and rehabilitation, he was banned from aircraft with ejector seats but he continued to fly.
“I still get a lot of flashbacks,” reflected Ken at his home in Belmesthorpe.
“I’ve often thought I might be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder although I haven’t been diagnosed with it. I was lucky.”
Born in Sunderland in February 1934, Ken joined the RAF as a signaller in 1953 before being commissioned in 1965 as an air electronics officer and was posted to 97 Squadron at RAF Watton where the accident took place.
He was also one of the first people to witness the dropping of a hydrogen bomb near Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean in 1957.
That same year, he was flying from Honolulu to San Francisco when one of the plane’s Merlin engines cut out. Ken and the crew made it back to the base safely with just one engine.
Ken was posted to RAF Cottesmore in 1969 following the accident before leaving the RAF in 1974 and started up his own business in the motor trade.
Married to Shirley for 62 years, the couple have have four daughters, eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
They have lived in Oakham, Market Overton, Stamford and finally Belmesthorpe, where they have lived for the last 14 years.
Ken has survived cancer, strokes and four hip replacements and enjoys DIY, computers and gardening in his spare time.
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