Herculean task to free stranded giant warplane stuck in a Shropshire field
Goodbye to an aviation great – and thanks for the entertainment one memorable August Bank Holiday weekend.
The C-130 Hercules transport plane is retiring from RAF service at the end of this month, having seen many finest hours in its long service spanning 56 years supporting military and humanitarian missions all over the world.
But the visit by one of the giant planes to a small grass airfield in Shropshire proved to be somewhat less than a finest hour, and proved to be a considerable embarrassment played out before an audience of amused spectators peering over hedges.
Parents took along their children to watch the Herculean struggle to free the plane after it got bogged down in the south west corner of Chetwynd airfield, near Newport.
It was stranded in Shropshire for five days before finally being able to fly off again.
Even during the war the airfield, which continues to be used by the RAF for training, was notorious for having soggy patches.
It had been affected by heavy rain in preceding days when a Hercules from RAF Lyneham on a training flight made a scheduled landing in the late afternoon of Thursday, August 26, 1999.
The landing was fine. But then the problems began.
