dESPair THC 007

The true story of the THC-007

Samedan, LSZS, February 1989

The golden rays of the rising sun threw a wonderful light on the Piz Bernina (11700ft). The atmosphere was brilliant as a diamond, and each word you spoke out seemed to freeze in the frosty air. It was a perfect day for my job - and it was the first day without snowfall for more than two weeks.

A couple of tourists have been cut of the Civilization up on the Diavolezza glacier since 12 days and requested assistance. As the weather finally has changed, I was assigned an emergency cargo flight to deliver pharmaceutics and some essential goods to the captured crowd. Unfortunately I had no appropriate aircraft at hand, and the delivery had to be a parachute drop of the goods.

While preparing my flight plan, the study of the meteorological data showed that the good weather is just a small hole within a giant cloud cover. So, There's not much time left to fly save up to the glacier and return home.

After filing the flight plan, and inspecting the Cessna C-172 Skyhawk II, and controlling the cargo load, I entered the cockpit and prepared for take off.

16 minutes later I was already circling over Sankt Moritz to get enough altitude for the approach towards Diavolezza glacier at 10475 ft msl. The valley is pretty steep and does not provide much airspace, so circling means a couple of tight curves and a pretty high AOA.

00:31 - Diavolezza is in sight to the left, preparing for the final drop approach. Throttle all the way back, Flaps extended fully, the nose of my bird pointed towards the gods...

Facing the Piz Morteratsch, Piz Palü and Piz Bernina, you suddenly feel sooo small and fragile... and this always makes a special feeling to fly low and slow towards the Diavolezza glacier. Samedan Ground control advised the Tourists of my arrival - and I could see them waiting for me to drop the cargo. Then I began to pull slightly and get my bird into a slow left turn, opened the left door and prepared to activate the automatic cargo dropper (an invention back from the tea smuggling time - see the Avro RJ85 story). Right over their heads - a dry "ka-tschunk" and the package was out there, gliding softly on the chutes.

Mission completed, returning back to base. It's always a mixed feeling if you leave the scenery - somehow a relief, but like a separation in the same time. I landed after an unspectacular flight save in Samedan. After taxiing to my hangar, I went into the pilots lounge to get my "Pharisean" - a strong coffee with at good dose of "Kirsch" (a swiss alco specialty). The day was done - the weather already began to worsen again.

But before I only could wetten my lips, a guy from the airport security staff ran into the lounge, shouting "we have an emergency". Obviously they got a radio call from a film team that was working on a small glacier near Piz Corvatsch. They were up on the glacier with a Cessna Conquest I on skids. And they were filming a scene for the next James Bond "Up in smoke" (this film was never released, read on below why).

Unfortunately their pilot fell into a small ice crack on the glacier. He did not fell deeply, but obviously he broke at least one leg. Now, the rest of the team was stuck up there, the pilot out of order, and the weather worsening pretty fast. It will be a race against the time. We had no aircraft that could have landed up there - so we decided one of the available pilots parachutes down to the glacier and takes the whole gang back. Unfortunately again, I was the only available glacier pilot with parachuting experience - so I was the one who prepared for the drop, while my colleges prepared the Pilatus PC-6 to take me up to Piz Corvatsch.

00:00 mission time - we are ready for take off at LSZS, rw 3. The sky has turned gray a couple of minutes earlier. The race has begun.

00:21 we are at the required altitude to approach Piz Corvatsch area for my parachute drop. The morning it was a cargo parcel, now, just four hours later, it was myself who was getting dropped...

00:28 Stef, the pilot, gave me the "GO" sign as we reached the coordinates we fixed in the flight plan. I took a last deep breath and ran out of the aircraft. The air had become pretty turbulent, so I needed to pull hard on the strings to prevent from being drifted away.

00:39 - touch down on a small snowfield near the location of the movie crew. After disconnecting my jump suit from the chute, I walked towards the "stranded" aircraft and the folks waiting nearby. The greeting was heartily, but we had no time to loose and began to load the crew and as much cargo as possible. The injured pilot has already been boarded carefully.

01:16 - the visibility dropped to about 4 miles, and each minute longer on the glacier will lower our chance to get the plane up and safely back to Samedan. BUT, they haven't thought of preparing the take off track! A group of four people began to work the terrain with the only shovel we had - and their hands.

At least the biggest cracks and blocks needed to be flattened out to get the heavily loaded Conquest. It was a difficult balance between save take off - and decreasing weather conditions.

01:42 - the visibility was now down to 3 miles and slight snow fall has begun. I decided that we can no longer delay the take off and we had to live with the track we have worked so far.

When I entered the Cessna, I was shocked, Those morons had packed ALL material in there, lots of cables, mounts, and loosely packed film stuff. I gave them 2 minutes to throw anything out that is not tied on tightly within 2 more minutes. I must have sounded pretty serious, because they did as advised and within the 4 minutes...

01:49 - engine on, system checks, passengers seated and belts strapped on. Cargo load fixed, track clear. I advised Samedan about the Take off and my route back to Samedan.

01:52 - Take off. Full throttle, flaps ready to throw in. The track was very shaky, and I feared it would throw is into the deep snow outside the track- our definite doom. But there is no real decision speed when starting on glaciers. Either you go, or you crash. Speed 40, 45, 50... way too slowly increasing! The end of the track came nearer and we had left only a couple of meters left, when the bird finally lifted of very very gently. Only slow stick movements, trying to prevent ground contact. The take off was successful, but now the weather conditions were dramatically decreasing. Vis. 2.5nm, strong winds at 320° and the snow is getting severe. This was a pure IFR flight, as the windows showed gray white only, for the whole flight.

Keeping the aircraft as low as possible, to get the latest visual clues, I was thanking the gods that I have flown the same route a few times last weeks. Otherwise there would have been not much chance to get enough orientation to fly back to LSZS. Finally we arrived safely, and the injured pilot was transported to the hospital. The crew was thankful and promised me a reward from the producer. We spent time with a couple of drinks in the lounge and it was fun to hear the details about the aircraft James Bond will be flying in this movie.

Four weeks later, I heard that the producer decided to not finish the movie, because he was afraid that more accidents might happen. The snail mail message I got from the producer
was simple and short:
"Dear Captain Habakuk. We are lacking words for the fantastic rescue mission. As a thank you, please accept the donation of the movie aircraft, the EMbraer Tucano EMB 312."

Next morning, I went ot the hangars to get my hands on the now newest baby of the dESPair - the THC-007. The funny thing is that the special effects built in for the movie are still there - but don't tell the FAA about this!!!

Come with me on a flight over the alps - I'll show you the details of the "Eagle Eye" THC007.

Captain Habakuk
Hak the seagull