Krade

AN RAF Top Gun pilot was facing the high jump last night — for flying so low he hit a lamppost.
The ace clipped the airbase light at 54ft with a wing tip on his Jaguar attack jet while doing 600mph.

He wrestled control of the crippled single-seater and headed straight out to sea from the coastal base in Cyprus.

Ground crews went into a full-scale emergency — but the pilot swooped round over the Med and headed back to base before slamming the plane on a runway.

RAF police immediately impounded the £25million Jaguar and the ace was grounded pending an investigation.

He faces an official carpeting and court martial, which could cost him his wings.

The Top Gun from RAF Coltishall, Norfolk, decided on a low-flying celebration run after completing a week’s hard training on bombing ranges near the base at Akrotiri.

AN RAF Top Gun pilot was facing the high jump last night — for flying so low he hit a lamppost.
The ace clipped the airbase light at 54ft with a wing tip on his Jaguar attack jet while doing 600mph.

He wrestled control of the crippled single-seater and headed straight out to sea from the coastal base in Cyprus.

Ground crews went into a full-scale emergency — but the pilot swooped round over the Med and headed back to base before slamming the plane on a runway.

RAF police immediately impounded the £25million Jaguar and the ace was grounded pending an investigation.

He faces an official carpeting and court martial, which could cost him his wings.

The Top Gun from RAF Coltishall, Norfolk, decided on a low-flying celebration run after completing a week’s hard training on bombing ranges near the base at Akrotiri.





He was cleared by the control tower for the pass, but ordered NOT to go below 200 feet.

The jet reached 500ft over the sea before turning for the run.

But ground crew were horrified as it just kept getting lower and lower as it hit 600mph — before clipping the light stanchion on the edge of the plane parking area.

The collision ripped off the left wing tip containing navigational lighting and wiring. Repairs could cost £2million.

Investigating officers found the damage to the post was exactly 54ft above ground level.

An RAF source said: “It is traditional to do a farewell ‘beat up’ of an airfield when you leave after a detachment.

“The usual form is for the pilot to fly low over the base and waggle his wings.

“If this Top Gun had not actually hit the light he would have got off with a severe rollocking.

“As it is, he’s lucky to be alive.And he’ll be lucky to keep his wings if he is convicted at a court martial.”

Another source said: “There is a public road to the beach just a mile away.

“The Jaguar could easily have flipped over and exploded, scattering burning fuel for hundreds of yards.”

Last night the Ministry of Defence confirmed: “There is an ongoing investigation into the incident.”
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Opps

Scoob99

iTrader: (1)

A tad misjudgement their then

Brendan Hughes

"Repairs could cost £2million."


That's OK, they've just made 20% of the Civil Service redundant, so they can afford these kind of things

Jamo

iTrader: (23)

how fooking low!!!! ****!!!

Shropshire-Guy

It would T cut out

Krade

I was told a story by a RAF Pilot about a NATO excersise in the dersert, There was a group of Americans boasting about their low flying, An RAF guy walked over and said you think thats low??? We've had two camel strikes on Buccaneers.

Iwan

A couple of years ago the RAF were doing night time practice airdrops from C-130 Hercules aircraft at (i think) South Cerney or Little Rissington. The sort where pallets of kit or Land Rovers get dragged out of the back with parachutes at very low level.

A bloke standing on the roof of a truck was killed when he was hit by the underside of a passing Hercs fuselage, now that's low (and v. unlucky).

Can't remember the exact details but it was in the aviation news mags and mentioned on the BBC news.

Ringpeas

for this guy. LOL

ScoobywagonGl

sounds like the pilot has gone a bit

SJ_Skyline

RAF Top-Gun Ace?

Ace-hole more like!

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Refer to my thread on what to do about low flying aircraft

Sbradley

Sounds like complete bollox to me.

In The Sun, by any chance?

First of all, a Jaguar wouldn't do 600mph if you strapped a shuttle booster onto it. Apart from anything else, that would make our hero supersonic over an inhabited area at sea level, which is a total no-no, even for the most dedicated jet jockey.

Second, if the aircraft were 'crippled' by the impact then there would be bits of lamp post all over Cyprus and the guy would have simply hauled back and ejected.

Third, if he managed a circuit and a recovery then Shropshire Guy is probably right. It'll t-cut out.

I suspect the truth is that he got cleared for a 200ft flypast and left his altimeter set to the QNH rather than the QFE - in other words he was 200ft above sea level while the airfield is itself at perhaps 180ft above sea level. So he might have been 20ft off the ground and still technically have been obeying instructions.

Very silly, perhaps very careless on somebody's part but not the big deal it might seem.

Slow news day obviously

SB

Sbradley

And another thing to show the quality of their sources.

Presumably they think it's a car, then. Aeroplanes don't "flip over and explode" without hitting the ground first. And at the speed he would have been travelling, it would make not one iota of a difference whether it flipped over or not.

SB

Geezer

Seeing as the Jaguars top speed is 990mph, and the speed of sound is 761mph at sea level, what exactly is wrong with this story? Ok, the runway maybe 180ft up, but still it's flying at 54ft above solid land, no matter what the height!

You only have to llok at the punishment war planes have taken in the past, or some airliners and still landed safely to realise that it could well have tipped the wing and survived

Geezer

Jerome

Slightly less sensational story from the BBC

Brendan Hughes

Classic!

"He realised that the light on his wing tip wasn't working shortly after take-off and returned."

Iwan

Er, yes they do. I saw 2 Mig29's clip each other in 1993 and one of them exploded (lots of fire and bits coming off it) before it hit the ground, admittedly it was nearly cut in half buy the other Migs wingtip. The one that clipped it lost its wingtip and went totally out of control, that one exploded when it hit the ground.

Was pretty cool to watch as no-one was seriously injured.

Geezer

Was that the one where the pilots both ejected, and then when one of them laned, just pulled out a ***, nonchantly lit it and walked off as if he had just parked the family Focus? Cool guy!

Geezer

Sbradley

OK, the Jaguar has a listed top speed of around 1000mph. That's stripped clean and at altitude. At or near sea level it is barely transonic, especially with the drop tanks and overwing pylons normally fitted to aircraft in that theatre of operations.

Second, I challenge you to charge along at around 500mph and judge whether you are at 50 or 200 ft. Especially after being trained continually to trust your instruments over everything else. If he had the wrong datum set then his altimeter may have been telling him he was at 200ft even if he wasn't.

And third, I know what punishment warplanes can take. I used to fly them.

SB

Sbradley

There's a bit of a difference between a mid air collision (if it's the one I think you mean then the one that exploded was hit just aft the cockpit by the other one - RAF Fairford I believe) and clipping an inanimate object.

If the lamp post remained standing and could be investigated then it can't have been any more than a glancing blow. Unlike the MiG which lost 2/3 of the wing instantly

It was cool to watch, yes. But totally irrelevant to this thread.

SB

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Would I be cool if I crashed my car and got out for a *** ?

I do know what you mean though.

Faire D'Income

..

Faire D'Income

Surely, if he was going to beat up an airfield then he'd use QFE, not QNH and I'd certainly hope that he'd be able to differentiate between 50ft and 200ft agl.

Sbradley

Mate, read my earlier post. It's not unheard of for someone either to automatically go to the QNH when departing, even when turning back in to beat up the field or for someone coming back in not to change onto it. It used to be SOP that you didn't change until told to by Air Traffic Control. So it might simply be a case of the pilot not doing it until told and ATC not telling him because he wasn't doing something on the flow-chart .

I wasn't there so I don't know. What I do know is that the initial story on this thread and the comments afterward blew a small event out of all proportion, hence my first reply...

SB

Alan C

The Jag could hit 600 MPH at this height and would be transonic. At this height, this speed would be at the outer reaches of its performance envelope.

For any run over land, even for a 'beat-up', this speed is probably exagerated by 200+ and the height by 200ft +. I've seen on land beat-ups (North Scotland coast) by Jags & Tornados that would not be allowed to approach this sort of speed. I've seen on sea passes that we're nearly supersonic ay 700, and this would simply not be achieved (even in an exuberant mood) by any pilot at a base such as Akrotiri.

I've flown in and out of that place many times and the only lights resembling the one's mentioned would put it on a line with the tower, storage areas and Pax terminal. Again, something that would be utterly unbelievable for a pilot to run down.

Any run that would require a turning angle of 50 degrees or more (needed to clip a lamp post) would send it either out to sea (after travelling over populated beaches and part of the main aircraft storage areas) or inland over the base itself where there are other structures and radio masts over 54ft. Again unbeliveable at that speed.

Then there's the small matter of the G's pulled at 600 MPH for a banked 50 degree turn. Somewhere IRO 7 G's. This would be SERIOUS turn in a dogfight... never mind over a populated air base below buidling height..

Take it with a pinch of salt guys....

Scoob99

iTrader: (1)

Well I hit a lamp post in my Royal mail van and took it out of the ground but only after a drunk driver hit me head on at over 100mph plus, and it made my eyes water
Cheers
Colin

Alan C

Cheers Colin, remind me to give the RAF a call and warn them off if you ever decide to become a fast jet pilot..!

Regacy

One comment.......
You would though, wouldn't you.