Fifty Years Ago ... LFC v Ajax, Wed 14/12/1966 (with images)

[Speke-EZY]

14th December 1966 brought Speke's first really big airlift of European football supporters. Ajax fans arrived in :

PH-DCF  DC-8-30  KLM Royal Dutch Airlines "Anthony Fokker"
PH-DSC  DC-7C    Martinair Holland
PH-DSO  DC-7C    Martinair Holland
PH-SAE  DC-7C    Schreiner Airways
PH-SAO  DC-7C    Schreiner Airways
PH-TRC  DC-6B    Transavia Holland
PH-CGD  CV-640   Martinair Holland
PH-MAA  DC-3C    Martinair Holland
PH-DAC  DC-3C    Schreiner Airways
PH-SAD  F-27     Schreiner Airways
G-ANBF  B.175    Britannia Airways
G-ASEN  C-54A    Invicta Airways

By the time I arrived after school , the airport was shrouded in dense fog. Fortunately there was a gap in the Banks Road fence where young spotters could sneak in. Some of the chartered aircraft were parked on the nearby West Apron , whilst the Martin's DC-7Cs were down by the old Hangar 50 (where the original MSAE club room used to be). The pair of Schreiner DC-7Cs were by the erstwhile Starways hangars adjacent to Speke Road. Most of the planes night-stopped , and KLM Electra PH-LLF called the following day to collect the football team. If only I'd had a camera in those interesting days ! For the record , I think the football match ended in a 2-2 draw , but Liverpool were eliminated by a heavy defeat in the away leg.

[viscount]

Dec 14, 2016 13:24:38 GMT 1 Speke-EZY said:

14th December 1966 brought Speke's first really big airlift of football European supporters.

Well done for spotting the anniversary and reminding us of this notable day in the past. By todays standards the number of passengers was small, just 1001 arriving on the 12 aircraft according to MGAE Flypast of the time (So just 6 Boeing 737/A.320 family aircraft of today). There is some coverage in the 1966 complete visiting aircraft logs and in the Annual Review: derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/20851/complete-visiting-aircraft-logs-review . What has not been mentioned is that two 'first visit of type' were recorded - the Electra and more significantly the Douglas DC-8. The much longer 'new' runway 10/28 had only been open 5 months at the time.

Ajax taught Liverpool a lesson in how to play European style football over the two legs. The away leg was first on Wednesday 7th December 1966 in Amsterdam. LFC flew out on a Channel Airways Viscount, supporters on 2 x British Eagle Britannias, a BMA C-4 Argonaut and a Dan Air Ambassador. They lost 5-1 away. The home leg on Wednesday 14th December ended as a draw 2-2, LFC losing 7-3 on aggregate. There are a few detailed accounts Goggleable on the internet eg en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_5%E2%80%931_Liverpool_(1966) It appears (4/2018) that this is still LFC's largest defeat in European competitions!
The LFC team at the time featured such greats as Ron Yeats, Ian Callagher, Ian St.John, Roger Hunt and Tommy Lawrence.

For those interested in football fan (aircraft) invasions of Liverpool Airport, then they can anticipate a major article on that theme in the next (around February 2017) issue of the FoLA magazine '09/27', shortly before the anniversary of a 1977 match.

I've rooted around other threads and found these shots (from the John Pope collection) from 1966 (and I've added some more in (4/2018) since on 'edit'. As can be seen the weather was dire in fog and drizzle.







The KLM DC-8-30 PH-DCF parking 'centre stage' for those viewing off the balcony. The Britannia Airways, Britannia 102 G-ANBF is parked on the new central 'finger' apron and the Cv-640 on the right hand 'finger' at the No.1 hangar end.





Invicta's Skymaster G-ASEN (several years earlier based with former owner Starways) parked on the Western Apron.



PH-DAC Dakota of Schreiner. Note behind is the reconstruction of the side door of No.1 Hangar to permit a Britannia tail to be accommodated inside.



Douglas DC-6 of Transavia, PH-TRC



One of 4 DC-7s present, PH-DSO of Schreiner

[wadoki]

Four DC-7s!!
In my 43 years of spotting I`ve only managed 16.

[Speke-EZY]

As a post script , I had to go to school the following day and didn't see the Electra. L.188C PH-LLF (2013) was sold on in 1968 and converted to a freighter. it subsequently served with Universal and DHL amongst others. I never did catch up with it !

[gerrymanning]

Brian, there are some shot of this day on the black & whites you kindly scanned for me and posted on the site, feel free to repost.

Gerry



Dakota PH-MAA is seen on 14th December 1966 bringing in Ajax supporters on a minor airlift that also brought in the first Douglas DC-8 and first Lockheed L-188 Electra aircraft to call at Liverpool. A number of the following pictures of aircraft were also involved with this fan's airlift on an initially dreadfully dismal and later a simply foggy day.



Another Martinair Holland aircraft, on the same airlift of fans on 13th December 1966 was turbine powered PH-CGD a Convair 640 conversion.



PH-DAC is a Dakota of Schreiner Airways, seen on 14th December 1966 with football fans - an foggy, wet dismal grey day, far from the best for photography.



PH-TRC is a Douglas DC-6 of Transavia Holland, another aircraft visitor connected with the inbound airlift of football fans 14th December 1966.

[viscount]

Bob O'Brien has dug deeply into his files and come up with a number of colour transparencies taken by Ian Keast on 14th & 15th December 1966. These are really clean scans, but even so I have slightly straightened a few, cleaned just a couple of marks off, lightened, sharpened slightly, cropped some sky off each shot and added a watermark to credit Ian Keast and the source.

The Douglas DC-8 shot colour has altered colour tones and which photoshop might ameliorate, but Picasa barely touches. Despite adding 'fill light' to most images, the dire wet and foggy gloom are apparent in each shot (although the film (Kodak 25?) has not coped well with the grey, dull conditions by putting colour into the sky). There are two not taken in December 1966, but I will include them at the end as it would be a shame not too!

No more preamble, just a further thanks to Bob O'Brien for sharing these wonderful photos of a significant day in the Airport's history, 50 years ago.




Douglas C-54 G-ASEN had been a resident at Speke while flown by Starways. After the demise of Starways it was then operated by Invicta Airlines of Manston, Kent and made infrequent visits back to Liverpool on passenger and freight charters over a number of years. On 14th December 1966 it was parked on the Western Apron, tucked close in beside Hangar No.4.



The only other British airline to be involved on 12th December was Britannia Airways with one of their Bristol Britannia 102s, G-ANBF, which was parked out on one of the finger aprons, facing the terminal.



Largest aircraft to arrive from Amsterdam, and a first visit of type to Speke was KLM's Douglas DC-8-30 PH-DCF which parked below the balcony.





The two Martinair Charter Douglas DC-7Cs, unloaded their passengers at the terminal and were then parked down towards the river on taxiways alongside hangar 39. By the time I got there after school they were fading in and out of the fog and gloom. They were both former KLM aircraft, PH-DSC and PH-DSO.





Further Douglas DC-7s, PH-SAE and PH-SAO were provided by Schreiner Airways, again unloading their passengers at the terminal and were then parked on a former taxiway around the threshold of the former 22 runway, to the airfield side of the Starways hangar. From Speke Boulevard these two aircraft could only just be seen outlined in the murk as I (presumably) cycled down after school.



Further Schreiner aircraft were this Fokker F-27 Friendship PH-SAD ....



.... and Douglas C-47 Dakota PH-DAC, which clearly was parked on the Western Apron



The morning after the match, the Ajax team were collected by KLM Lockheed Electra PH-LLF. Conditions had clearly improved the day after the match, indeed I suspect that the DC-7 photos are also on the Thursday as the fans departed.

That makes 9 of the 12 aircraft involved on the Wednesday, missing are Martinair Charter Cv-640 PH-CGD, C-47 Dakota PH-MAA and Transavia Douglas DC-6 PH-TRC, fortunately (and quite by chance) these 3 aircraft are those already illustrated in b&w by Gerry Manning. There were also the two Electra aircraft with the team, one on Tuesday and the other on Thursday - PH-LLE on the Tuesday (not illustrated here) was the first visit of type by an Electra at Liverpool.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Finally two more photos provided by Bob O'Brien, clearly taken on other occasions during the mid 1960s at Speke, but are too good not to include:



Martinair Dakota PH-MAA was involved in the Ajax airlift, it did visit Speke on a number of occasions - the weather is just simply too good for this to be a December 1966 image! Unless this was on the morning after, when the Electra was in collecting the team?



While Martinair Douglas DC-7C PH-DSL appears to be 'outparked' on a taxiway; the weather, but more particularly the registration shows that it was not one of the aircraft on the Ajax airlift day in mid December 1966.

[ronturner]

Thanks for recalling this memory of a wonderful day, although sadly I can still vividly recall watching the defeat by Ajax, sitting in front of the TV at my house, with John OakEs.
Ron

[Speke-EZY]

Many thanks to everyone who has kindly added photographs and comments regarding this event. I have amended my original list of visiting aircraft to more accurately show the airline names of the day. Best wishes to you all.

"Live long and prosper !"

Keith

[viscount]

As a 'bump up' and a reminder of one of the early LFC Airport 'invasions' by visiting team's fans. No biz jets back in 1966 to add to the variety of types though. Interesting to reflect that Douglas had the upper hand that day, along with Convair, Bristol, Fokker and Lockheed. The April 2018 Roma fans invasion was all Boeing and Airbus, the variety came from the biz-jet arrivals.

I've just replaced all the images here that had previously been blanked out by Photobucket and added a further half dozen into one of the early posts on the thread - images that I have recently posted on '60s decade' thread.

With the anticipation of a further LFC European Final in May 2018, I'm working on a couple of new major threads, in addition to going back and ensuring that earlier football related threads have the images restored to view.

[kuga59]

Viscount
I remember the day well as I went to both the airport (lunch time- 1hr30mins & the 81 bus from school) and the match in the evening.
The idea of putting all the football related pages together sounds a great idea.
Look forward to seeing it, as well as Jordan Henderson lifting the cup again.