Brought back some chilling holiday  memories - this one detailed below involved two Hunters doing 'touch and bumps' (ie touching down on the runway then taking off again) on a normal Thursday at RAF Valley. I was in the public viewing space at the end of the runway,they came in, touched and bumped then flew past overhead. A few seconds later people were shouting. the planes had nudged each other, a wing had broke off and they were coming to earth.Then the flash followed by the the noise of the explosion. As the crow flies the Silver Bay Holiday Site was only 1 mile from the end of the runway - which is too close. That was the day I decided I didn't want to be a pilot anymore when I grew up.



Date:    10-AUG-1972

Hawker Hunter F.Mk 6
Owner/operator:    4 FTS RAF
Registration:    XF387
C/n / msn:    S4/U/3287
Fatalities:    Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Other fatalities:    1
Airplane damage:    Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Location:    near Silver Bay Holiday Camp, Pentre Gwyddel, Rhoscolyn, Anglesey -     United Kingdom
Phase:    En route
Nature:    Military
Departure airport:    RAF Valley (HLY/EGOV)
Destination airport:   
Narrative:
Two Hawker Hunter F.Nk.6s of 4 FTS, RAF Valley (XF384 and XF387) collided at 200 feet over Rhoscolyn, Anglesey. XF384 crashed onto the Silver Bay Holiday Camp striking several caravans and killing a woman and her dog (named Jet). XF387 crashed into a field adjacent to the holiday park killing the pilot, a Jordanian National later named as Pilot Cadet Talal Shafiq Issa

Just found out my bro in law's nephew was somehow involved and has serious burns, in hospital now might need skin grafts.  I live about a mile from the crash site.  My parents' next door neighbours(who I grew up with and are v. Close family friends) were there as was one of the girls from work.  All a bit too close to home this.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3209154/Spectator-demands-refund-Shoreham-Airshow-tickets.html

some peasant wanted a refund from the RAFA because the show was cancelled

Awful

quote from the telegraph this morning:

08.27 - Pilot 'performed a lunatic manoeuvre'

An expert pilot has suggested Andy Hill, the pilot of the Hawker Hunter jet that crashed, was "showing off" as he performed a "lunatic" manoeuvre.

Leslie Hatcher, 71, a former RAF aerobatics instructor who flew Hawker Hunters, told The Times that the sort of accident seen at Shoreham "should never happen".

He said: "Your display should be done up and down the runway. You should stay within the boundaries of the airfield. He should have been nowhere near that road.

"He was carrying drop [auxiliary fuel] tanks on each wing. To make it as safe as possible, you take an absolute minimum of fuel. Even if they were empty, they should not have been there. They cause drag on the aircraft.

"That guy came in at about 100ft, much lower than the 500ft minimum height allowed. He pulled up and he was going too slowly. He looked unstable as he was going over the top [of the loop]. He should have rolled out at the top.

"The guy must have been a complete lunatic to come in at 100ft and think he could pull out of it [the loop] safely.

"This guy — I think simply he was just showing off. This sort of accident should never happen. Even if he had taken a bird strike in the engine, he would have been able to recover that [if he was flying above 500ft].

"You do not fly over crowds. You do not fly below 500ft."

Mr Hatcher said he had flown 60 hours in one and two-seater variants of the Hawker Hunter before graduating to fly the supersonic English Electric Lightning. He later became an aerobatics instructor at RAF Training Command. In 1981 he won the Wright Jubilee Trophy for best display by an RAF pilot.

Mr Hill, a 51-year-old from Surrey, remains in a critical condition in hospital after remarkably surviving the disaster. His wife is understood to also be a pilot.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/aviation/11822238/Shoreham-Air-Show-crash-Search-for-victims-enters-fourth-day-latest.html

The most amazing thing in all this is that the pilot is still alive.  I mean wtf, he didn't eject did he, sure no one has said so.  So how on earth could he possibly possibly be alive?

There was a german girl who survived a plane breaking up or exploding or something at 30,000 ft, she landed in the amazonian rainforest, the trees broke her fall and she followed the streams till she got to a bigger river and found some lumber tracks and then some people.  Hey presto she survived.  That is not as impressive as this pilot surviving for my money.

I’d guess it would depend if the blackout were caused by too tight a turn, beyond accepted limits, which would be poor judgement on his part.

I’m no expert, but I’ve never heard of someone surviving a fighter jet crash on a runway, away from big objects and with the fire and ambulance only a couple of hundred yards away, let alone a road full of cars, barriers poles and surrounded by trees.

My guess, as I haven’t read anything about it, would be that the front bit broke off on impact and tumbled out of the way of that massive engine and all that aviation fuel. (front bit is a technical term to avoid upsetting the facking censor).

cockpit

yes, the survival of the pilot - whatever the condition - is virtually unprecedented

I know it is a bit off-topic but I can't imagine that an ejector-seat would be allowed on non-military aircraft. The rocket thrusters would be removed. They are classed as explosives.

Just my opinion. Possibly wrong.

the plane did have it's ejector seat, it had partially deployed according to the resue teams and had to be made safe before the debris could be moved

I must say that I find that surprising although I don't know what 'partially deployed' means. I'm also a bit stuck on what 'its sry' means.

Like I said, that was just my thoughts on things because very strict procedures must be in place to prevent untimely operation of an ejector seat!

Thanks for the info, though. 

Witnesses reported seeing the pilot being dragged out of the wreckage alive. - The Metro 22/8.

I haven't seen any details of who was involved in this heroic act.

I think I read his seat with him in it separated from the wreckage, maybe the explosive (?) bolts sheared or it
was half ejected, apparently the canopy was off.

The official report apparently says he started too low and wasn't rated to do that. They also recovered cockpit cameras. I'm not sure about the thrust ability of that plane but a lot of fighter jets (famously the Lightning / Eurofighter / F18) can basically climb vertically like rockets so you could start a loop at 1ft and complete it with oodles of room if you wanted. You see them do it at airshows, it's a way to start an impressive display, take off and whoosh. I still think from the footage I saw he just isn't rotating enough as he comes down for a length of time. Don't know if they've interviewed him yet.

Also the thing about having tanks on when he maybe shouldn't have is a thought, as the loop is a bit wierd, like maybe the fact he sort of lazy skews at the top is because he's not got the speed at that point like a sort of stall.

Having just read the AAIB report at no point does it say he started the manoeuvre too low or offer any opinion to that effect. All the newspapers are stating that is the case, so apologies for the post I made above.

https://assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk/media/55e993f5ed915d06a100002c/S3-2015_G-BXFI.pdf