RAF Harrier pilot joins Martin Baker club

Nforce

Happened in Kandahar recently...lucky pilot!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viBxzd8T0RY

Growler!!!

There is a well known gentleman here in Ireland who also has a "silkworm" tie from a bang out of a harrier in Canada:eek:

cyrusdvirus

was it combat damage that caused the crash landing, or did he make a mistake on the approach?

Nforce

Growler!!! wrote: »

There is a well known gentleman here in Ireland who also has a "silkworm" tie from a bang out of a harrier in Canada:eek:

Yep...I've posted it on another forum that he frequents

Edit: @gatecrash...I believe he suffered engine failure...pretty common among the Harrier fleet,especially on the earlier variants.

scudzilla

Sure took his time in bailin out, 14 seconds!!

Growler!!!

Yep...I've posted it on another forum that he frequents

Just saw that:o

Sounds like he lost the eng on appr. Lucky bugger to come out of it.

punchdrunk

seems like it wasn't engine failure,but under pressure from the tower he came in too hard & fast and fubared the landing gear

lucky man!

Steyr

He stayed in the Harrier as long as possible to divert her from a Civillian Aircraft on the Runway not 30M away from where she stopped.

Get that man a pint.

Steyr

Nforce wrote: »

Happened in Kandahar recently...lucky pilot!

Not too recently it was 14th May 2009 at about 10.30am local time. Interestingly enough that Harrier was carrying a pair of Paveway IV's on the out board pylons with CVR-7 "live" pods (that's 19 rounds of HE) on the intermediate ones, a pair of drop tanks and a Sniper XR pod on the port fuselage station

Frankly im amazed with the fuel tanks she didnt go up a bit sooner when you see the force of impact.

Got this Pic from Airliners.net which some member on there scanned from the UK Sun Paper at that time

Steyr

Aircraft in question was ZG478/68 (cn P68) 41 sqn GR9A, she was the second last Aircraft to depart RAF Coltishall on the last day of RAF Operations there.

Growler!!!

seems like it wasn't engine failure,but under pressure from the tower he came in too hard & fast and fubared the landing gear

lucky man!

Thats a bit unlikely - He is on very short finals putting in large changes in power( or so it sounds like, possibly engine surging) at the last minute he tries to stretch the glide by pitching back to a high angle of attack. Wings lose lift and hard landing ensues.
This is a fixed wing aircraft that can hover. Theres no need to do anything quickly if engine power is available.

He stayed in the Harrier as long as possible to divert her from a Civillian Aircraft on the Runway not 30M away from where she stopped.

Thats very unlikely - First off he wouldnt have been cleared to land with other traffic on the runway. Thats common sense.
Secondly with the large vertical deceleration he would have suffered on hitting the ground he may have been concussed to such a degree that he couldn't make the decision to eject. Maybe when he got his wits about him and saw that the a/c was on fire he took the correct decision to get out.

Diverting from a Civ a/c was probably reported by the uk red tops. If not that then he was going to avoid a school or church or something else:D. They must have used the word "PLUNGE" also, thats a good word for anything to do with aircraft....

(Warning this is all my own opinion and is probably wrong:eek:)

Dacian

Jesus that was some bang. came as a shock to me, I could see he had quite a bit of speed,heard the engines increase in pitch then suddenly the ground comes out of nowhere.

I concur with the concussion theory, that impact could well have smacked him off something in the cockpit.

Having next to no knowledge of Harriers the approach looked to be very fast with a high rate of vetical descent.

Steyr

Growler!!! wrote: »

Thats very unlikely - First off he wouldnt have been cleared to land with other traffic on the runway. Thats common sense.

Whoops, your wrong!

Quote:
AN RAF pilot described yesterday how he risked his life by ejecting from a Harrier jet as he tried to avoid crashing into a civilian passenger aircraft in its path.

The Harrier scraped along the runway at 80mph on collision course with the civilian plane, which had eight people on board.

He stayed in his cockpit until the last possible moment before ejecting on his rocket-fired seat as the Harrier burst into flames which were later extinguished.

The pilot’s bravery meant the Harrier missed the other aircraft by 30ft before he ejected.
The pilot, who did not want to be named but is thought to be from No 1 (Fighter) Squadron based at RAF Cottesmore in Rutland, said: “I tried to control the aircraft after the undercarriage collapsed, but when I saw the fireball I knew it was time to eject.

“There was a pop and rush of air, then everything went quiet until the parachute opened seconds later. I couldn’t feel any pain.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6301835.ece

Nforce

Nope...he's right. At the moment of touchdown the gear was completely ripped away and rudder control wouldn't have helped much (might have spun the aircraft on a horizontal axis,but no real directional control)...the pilot was pretty much going along for the ride at that point.

Edit: Just watched the video again and no sign of any civilian a/c within 30ft of the Harrier. There's an Antonov way off in the distance though.

Steyr

From a poster on pprune

"To say I was close enough to the scene would be an understatement. Just wanna try and get hold of this pilot to say thanks as there were definately passengers onboard the "passenger" aircraft and this guy who was flying, to the best of my knowledge, saved my life and the lives of the people on my aircraft. When he first came down he was pointed straight at me but he managed to steer it away from us before he ejected."

Apparently the above poster was asked to contact the Service Inquiry President about the incident.

Another POV
"I remember this day well

We had to sit for best part of an hours rotors running waiting for the fire crews to deal with it before ATC would let us depart,the who airfield went Black for a while...

The big concern was the Bombs on it going off, also you could hear a Pred operator arguing with the Yank ATC as his aircraft was parked and over heating with even more bombs but couldn't shut down so they were afraid of more explosions....

ATC wouldn't let them move....."

Interesting to say the least.:cool:

Growler!!!

(Warning this is all my own opinion and is probably wrong)

Lucky i put that in:D.

Funny thing is the pilot of the pax aircraft says the harrier was pointed straight at him?? Never heard of an aircraft landing on a runway with somebody lined up at the other end.

But a thought occured to me. Would the harrier have been having trouble with his eng before the crash? Possibly putting him in a postion where he was trying to land downwind? He certainly seems quite fast on finals.

Will have a look on pprune when i get home.

Just wanna try and get hold of this pilot to say thanks as there were definately passengers onboard the "passenger" aircraft

"Passenger" aircraft eh........... full of Orange jumpsuited figures me thinks hehe:rolleyes:

xflyer

The pilot never said he tried to avoid the mystery passenger 'plane. In any case he had no nosewheel and thus no steering. His comments confirm what you see in the video. He ejects just as the flames begin to envelop the canopy.

“I tried to control the aircraft after the undercarriage collapsed, but when I saw the fireball I knew it was time to eject.'

He 'tried' but clearly he had no control. Just the usual over the top newspaper nosense.

If I ever find myself 'fighting the controls' as I 'plunge' 'screaming in terror' towards the local primary school, playground, nursery and children's hospital. I will endeavour to avoid them all and land somewhere flat but close by thus earning truly heroic status.:rolleyes:

"Passenger" aircraft eh........... full of Orange jumpsuited figures me thinks hehe

Skydivers???

Growler!!!

Skydivers? In Afghanistan?

No i meant "passengers" as in "Persons of Interest" to the United States. Possibly getting free tickets from Helmand to detention camps via Shannon:D

Ive had a look through 5 pages of comments on PPrune and only one mentions this passenger plane. Strange indeed.

Any way - well done to the pilot for getting out, the plane can be replaced. He'll have a good story to tell his grandkids, and free beers in the Mess:p

xflyer

No i meant "passengers" as in "Persons of Interest" to the United States. Possibly getting free tickets from Helmand to detention camps via Shannon

I was joking as were you.