This information has been sent to us from Sgt Ken Denman.
I have just been reading the web article on the crash of VX491 on 22 August 1957.
This is a poignant reminder of a very sad day as we approach the 50th anniversary of this accident.
My own involvement was as an Air Signaller on the crew of Master Pilot Bill Glover with Flt Sgt Fred Underwood (Nav) and myself Sgt Ken Denman- we were part of the Air Supply Force (Malaya) detachment at Kuala Lumpur at the time of the accident.
The Air Supply Force was formed in april 1957. the previous 2-3 years had seen the loss of 5 Valettas including aircrews and 55 Coy personnel. In an effort to cut these losses, Aircrews were detached to Kuala Lumpur for a minimum of three months and as far as possible stayed together as a crew and flew the same aircraft during their detachment.
As a rule we flew one or two sorties a day for six days then had the seventh off.
My crews allocated aircraft was VX491, but thursday 22 august was our day off, unfortunately there were problems with Flt Sgt Bob Pound's own aircraft that day, so he and his crew took VX491.
Until this accident, previous Valetta crashes in Malaya had resulted in the loss of all aircrew and 55 Coy personnel, and in the absence of other evidence, official assumption was that these earlier crashes had been the result of aircrew error.
The evidence from the 55 Coy survivors of the VX491 accident indicated that the cause of the crash was a mechanical failure- "A Runaway Propeller"- this is when a propeller locks in "fully fine pitch" and produces no thrust, indeed it acts like a large airbrake - the engine overspeeds, and in extreme the engine can tear itself from its mountings.
Once this failure occured there was nothing that could save VX491. The fact that the 55 Coy boys survived at all is no doubt due to Bob Pounds handling of the aircraft during those last tragic moments, from the evidence of the 55 Coy survivors, I understand that Bob ordered Sgt Brian Boyatt the Signaller to take shelter behind the main spar in the cabin to improve his chances of survival. Whether Brian survived the impact only to perish in the subsequent fire, we will never know.
I hope that these 50 year old memories will be of interest to those who visit your site.
Ken Denman.
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