July 3, 2009

THE combination of a bird strike and pilot error resulted in a fighter jet crash landing at a North East airport.

An RAF Tornado made a crisis diversion to Newcastle Airport on August 5 last year but overshot the runway by around 30 metres, forcing its complete closure.

The £30m military jet, used on reconnaissance missions supporting coalition forces in Iraq, came to rest on the grass at the far end of the strip near Dinnington village, its front wheel collapsing on landing.

The pilot and co-pilot were taken to hospital with cuts and bruises while a full-scale emergency alert was declared at the accident scene.

Fire crews based at the airport surrounded the stricken plane which ended nose-down close to the perimeter fence.

Scorch marks could be seen on the tail of the Tornado, which was manoeuvring in the area from its 13 Squadron base at RAF Marham in Norfolk.

Now, a report released by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch 11 months after the crash has uncovered previously unclear details about the fateful flight.

The report says the Tornado was involved in a bird strike 45-miles north west of Newcastle, at a height of 430ft over Northumberland National Park.

The 28-year-old Commander and Weapons Systems Operator on the aircraft were forced to abandon the routine sortie and set a flight-path for the closest airfields. Investigators said in their report that the pilot had failed to reduce engine power as the plane approached the end of the runway, resulting in the overshoot.

But they found the crew had been following “safe operating margins” when the Tornado, travelling at 500mph, was struck.

“The aircraft diverted to Newcastle Airport following a bird strike,” they state.

“During landing, an electrical connection in the right engine reverse thrust control system became intermittent, producing random oscillations of the engine’s reverse thrust buckets. The fault was such that it was not clearly indicated to the crew until the aircraft had travelled a considerable distance along the runway and the pilot did not take the appropriate action of retarding the right power lever.

“With full dry power selected on both engines throughout the landing roll, there was thus a considerable forward component of thrust, and the pilot was unable to stop the aircraft before it overran the runway end.

“Cockpit indications accurately reflected the fault, but faced with an unusual and poorly documented failure case in a time-critical situation, the pilot did not take the appropriate action of retarding the right power lever.”

Conclusions drawn from the incident at Newcastle have led the RAF Board of Inquiry to recommend improvements to Tornado flight crew training.

Air crew killed in Tornado crash

TWO RAF crew died yesterday when their Tornado fighter jet crashed near a beauty spot, the Ministry of Defence confirmed.

A major search was launched after the jet ploughed into a hill near Arrochar, Argyll, west of Loch Lomond.

An MoD spokesman said: “It is with deep regret that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the deaths of two RAF air crew from 43 Squadron, RAF Leuchars, in a Tornado F3 crash. The aircraft crashed during a routine training flight at 11.45am at Glen Kinglas in Argyll.

“The next of kin have been informed and have requested a period of 24 hours grace before further details are released.”

RAF Squadron Leader Paul Lipscomb confirmed the training exercise had involved two aircraft and the other plane had returned safely to the RAF base.

Weather in the area at the time was said to be overcast with thick cloud.