'Forty-six feet short'

The tragic end of Vulcan bomber XM645 and the aftermath'

Author: David Grech

Publisher: Horizons Publications / 2025

Pages: 381

On Tuesday, 14 October 1975, that is, 50 years ago this year, an Avro Vulcan plane left RAF Waddington airfield in the UK on what was expected to be a routine flight to Malta.

It was to be anything but routine, at the end of which the plane was no more, five British airmen and an unfortunate Maltese housewife, on her way to see her mother, were to die.

The tragedy could have been far worse because of the school nearby. The people of Zabbar saw this as a miracle.

Subsequent investigations by the British armed forces were to establish that the tragedy was caused by human error and later Captain Garth Robert "Bob" Alcock, one of the two survivors, was charged and found guilty of having caused the tragedy with his wrong decisions.

Basically, the plane's structure was also a contributing factor, as can be seen by the many other accidents, some fatal, that involved the same type of plane.

In particular, the crammed quarters for the "passengers" behind and under the cockpit made it practically impossible for them to make their way out in case of an accident. To the eternal shame of the British, they knew of the problem but refused to do anything because it would cost a lot and the plane was earmarked to be replaced, anyway.

So what happened, exactly? It had already been agreed that the pilot of the plane, Flight Lieutenant Alcock would be replaced by Flight Lieutenant Euan Cairns Alexander as captain for the whole flight to Malta. Alexander had already carried out a landing in Malta. The weather was fine in Malta.

At 12.48pm, while on Sicily, contact was made with Malta and the plane started its descent to Malta. Ahead of the plane there was a Victor aircraft also heading to Malta.

The Vulcan was assigned Runway 24, over the Grand Harbour (now renamed Runway 25).

What seems to have happened was that Alexander brought down the plane too hard and too short and hit the ground in the gravel part before the tarmacked runway. As the book's title has it, the plane hit the ground "46 feet short" of the tarmac.

The impact was a strong one and an engine fell to the ground. Fire broke out but the pilots could not see it.

The plane continued on its way and seems to have hit the ground a second time further down the runway. Meanwhile Alcock had taken over piloting the plane and managed to get it to climb. The plane emerged over the cliffs and out at sea.

But the fire was still getting the upper hand and controls became sluggish.

Somehow Alcock turned the plane inland and came over the centre of Ghaxaq, passed to the west of Zejtun and headed towards Zabbar, possibly aiming to get to the north-east coast and get rid of the excess fuel before going on to land on the main runway where there would be foam for emergencies. But the plane was getting increasingly sluggish.

Here Alcock made his second and most serious mistake. He had been involved in another Vulcan crash before and now he thought he had around half an hour to get the "passengers" out of the plane and float downwards with parachutes.

It did not make it for there was a huge explosion and the plane split into two, plunging down on the centre of Zabbar.

The order to bail out had been given but was too late for the crew huddled in the compartment behind the cockpit. They burned to death in their seats.

Unfortunely no tablet records their names - chief technician Thomas "Gordon" Barrow; sergeant Peter John Atkins; navigator radar Flight Lieutenant Ernest Stanley Lambert; navigator plotter Flight Lieutenant Gordon Anthony Pulman and air electronics officer Squadron Leader David William Beeden.

Alcock's normal co-pilot, Flying Officer Phil Davies, could not make it as his wife was expecting a baby. He was replaced by Alexander.

Barrow was flying his last mission before retiring.

Alcock's first mistake was in allowing Alexander to pilot without adequately informing him that the runway was narrow and on a slope.

Alcock and Alexander ejected from the plane and floated down towards some fields on the outskirts of Zabbar where they were cared for by Zabbar doctor Josie Muscat. They were the only survivors.

The disintegrating plane rained bits and pieces over Ghaxaq, Zejtun and especially Zabbar, including some heavy and big pieces such as the canopy. Most of these pieces can be seen today in a special room inside the Zabbar parish museum.

The plane also rained down unburnt fuel since, as it happened, it had taken excess fuel from the UK. This river of fuel caused the only Maltese casualty.

Vincenza (Bice) Zammit, 47, had closed her haberdashery shop near the church and was walking on her way to visit her mother down Sanctuary Street, as usual, when she was overtaken by a river of burning fuel from behind her.

The irony is that had she crossed the street to the other side she would probably have emerged unscathed. But she was in a panic to get to her mother.

A side story: a tourist couple from Wales were passing through Zabbar when the tragedy occured. When they saw the wall of flames, they left the Triumph Herald in the middle of the road and escaped. The car was incinerated.

After the tragedy there was a huge job of cleaning up to be done. Burying the dead came first with the British airmen buried at their Anglican All Saints parish church of Nettleham in Lincolnshire. Barrow was buried in the Londonderry area of Northern Ireland. This, I find, was rather strange - in the Rabat crash the British victims were buried at the Mtarfa cemetery. 

Vincenza Zammit was buried in the Zabbar cemetery.

A total of 123 claims for damages sustained were presented by June 1976, relating to damage to buildings and fields, cars and human beings. The latter included claims on behalf of Zammit and also on behalf of Kevin Falzon, a boy who was critically injured by a piece of falling debris in the school grounds. However, in this last case, no compensation was made to his family, for reasons that remain obscure to the author.

One other thing I found rather strange - Dom Mintoff's rather subdued reaction given what we know of his fiery character and the huge potential damage the accident could bring about. He had been far more vocal in the Rabat accident some years before.

The Vulcan tragedy was not the first one involving British military planes in Malta.

On Friday, 5 April 1946, a Vickers Wellington bomber on a training exercise crashed into houses around St Mary Street, Count Roger Street and St Publius Street in Rabat killing 16 residents including five children and an infant. All four crew members on the plane died.

Six years later, on Tuesday, 30 December 1952, a Lancaster on a training flight at Ta' Kandja suffered a malfunction and ploughed into houses on the outskirts of Luqa causing the death of two British officers and later that of Maria Zarb.