Newcastle Airport RAF Tornado crash landing report
Jul 3 2009 by Alastair Craig, The Journal
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.
