FighterControl

would any one have the details of the phantom that "left the runway" and then diverted to Lyneham minus the nav with fencing wrapped around the leading edge? i had to guard it on the pan and couldn't recall which one it was?..cheers

The answer is closer than you might think - a Google search provided a link to a forum post:

viewtopic.php?t=108364

XV569 is the serial.

I am pretty sure that the F4 take-off incident was on the Sunday morning of the Bournemouth Airshow and was definitely towards the end of August 1984.

I was standing on the public north side of the airfield (where all the static was parked) chatting to a couple of friends. North side was relatively quiet, crowd-wise, as it occurred at about 1100h.

I was watching the pairs take-off on runway 26 when, at midway during a normal take-off run (abeam the ATC tower) there was an almighty bang and something shot skywards. It took a few seconds to realise that it was ‘real life’ and someone had just ejected.

As stated in the link above, the rear seater was badly injured due to the ejection being from 0 feet and at about 100 kts.

As the first F4 became airborne, the second F4 left the hard surface and accelerated south side over the grass and cross runway (with afterburner).

He eventually rotated and flew at very low level over one of the parked helicopter display teams (AAC?) on the south-west taxiway and the Parley Road.

Once he had left the confines of the airfield, the grass on the south side of the airfield started to smoke quite badly and everyone (including any aircrew southside) spent the next 30 minutes or so beating out any smouldering grass before it reached any of the parked aircraft. It had been a very dry summer and the grass ignited easily.

PA announced, a little later and to our great relief, that he had made a successful landing at Lyneham.

Further Google searches (which you vould have undertaken yourself) show it to have been 19/08/1984.

I was at the front of the crowd line right at the point the navigator ejected! It all happened so fast it took a while to realise what had just happened! The first thing remember was seeing a banner welcoming everyone to the airshow, suddenly take off, briefly, behind the Phantom, then a bang and something flew out of the aircraft, the grass caught fire, a parachute appeared and the other Phantom banked sharply to the right very low over the crowd line! I remember it very vividly like it was yesterday! On the evening news, we were on the video shot from the other side of the airfield showing it happen!

Nighthawke wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 20, 2021 9:02 pm

The answer is closer than you might think - a Google search provided a link to a forum post:

viewtopic.php?t=108364

XV569 is the serial.

thank you very much...

I have a Zoom meeting with the pilot of the phantom on that day if anyone wants to join in. It's Tues 10th Jan 2023, message me for the joining link or check out
Bournemouth Red Arrows Association on facebook