How not to land an Harrier

[skeggy]

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=28e_1275619112" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Skeggy (Kev).

[Mike]

A write-off possibly.

[Thunder]

That initial impact had to hurt, surprising how long the pilot stayed with the jet before he decided "oh fudge this".

[SteveS]

Good job he decided to get out when he did - brave man.

Did this happen long ago?

Steve

[Mark Owen]

Good job he decided to get out when he did - brave man.

Did this happen long ago?

Steve

Hi Steve.

15.6.09 is when it happened TJ posted the same video clip on the UKAR forum thats how I know when it happened.

Regards.

Mark.

[garyscott]

Im surprised he hadn't dumped the ordnance, unless he was suffering "hung bombs", but that was one hell of an impact, ouch!!

[RichC]

Has the report come out on this yet?
Why was he coming in so fast? He was well nose down at first.

Most of our jets come home with ordnance still attached. Makes you think now why they don't dump them but then i expect we would get grief from those on the ground for either wasting ordnance or collateral damage!

Have seen many other similar impacts (video/documentaries) where the pilot in that sort of impact is momentarily knocked unconscious but i have no idea if that was the case in this instance. Looks possibly he waited until he saw that fire flaring up beside him!

[Sheff]

All very odd, isn't it? It appears to be a steep landing (Hercules style) but rather badly misjudged at the very end, as there seems to be a pretty serious rate of descent at the point of impact. Maybe he failed to take into account the additional weight of the ordnance but you'd think that of all pilots, a Harrier driver would know what he's doing! From what I can see it does look like he was planning on staying with the aircraft until the flames started licking around the canopy - seems like a reasonable juncture at which to eject if you have the means with which to do it!

[RichC]

I know the Harrier has a very high landing speed compared to a lot of jets but perhaps it was on the verge of a stall taking into account the weight of the paveways etc too. As he did seem to drop and there was no apparent real thrust there to get out of it... (too quick?).

[garyscott]

All i can find on it is that it happened on May 14th, 2009 at 10:29am local, Kandahar airfield, Afghanistan.

Cannot find any accident report, but on a few other forums where this has cropped up it seems that, from people who were stationed there at the time, the pilot was fatigued and instead of manipulating the throttle lever, he moved the nozzle lever instead to full aft. At that point in his approach he should have been doing in the region of (due to airfield elevation, temps and winds, plus weight) 100 - 108 knots, not enough to maintain lift without a downward vector of thrust. When the nozzles went back, thrust lift was cancelled and the wing was not going through the air fast enough to keep the Harrier aloft. In a vain attempt to point the nozzles toward the ground, the pilot raised the nose of the aircraft, and applied full throttle. Unfortunately the spool up time was not enough to give him the boost, and the wing stalled due to the low airspeed/nose up angle.

It is NO reflection on the pilots skills, we may have a hard day at work and come home stressed and tired, but ours is nothing compared to what those lads and ladies have to endure, and they do it without question.

Gary.

[Sheff]

Seems like a pretty reasonable explanation - if there was no downward thrust from the engine then it's little wonder that the rate of descent was so high. Everyone can have a bad day. Reminds me of the Meteor crash at Coventry - you see a T7 fly past with the gear down and the brakes out and your hair stands on end, and yet this is a CFS instructor - one of the RAF's most experienced pilots. Mistakes happen no matter what you do, sadly.

[beefsteak]

A write-off possibly.

Nah , drop of T Cut will bring it up like a charm!!

[T_J]

It hasn't been published yet. Keep an eye on the Military Air Accident Summaries (MAAS).

http://www.mod.uk/defenceinternet/about ... rymaas.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/About ... ions/MAAS/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

TJ

[garyscott]

Done a little more digging with those "in the know".
Apparently the pranged bird is/was - ZG478/68 of 4SQN.

Gary.

[garyscott]

Reminds me of the Meteor crash at Coventry - you see a T7 fly past with the gear down and the brakes out and your hair stands on end, and yet this is a CFS instructor - one of the RAF's most experienced pilots. Mistakes happen no matter what you do, sadly.

What was that one Tim? Not a fatal i hope? I seem to recall that meatboxes suffered from 'phantom diver' syndrome - that wouldn't have been in play would it?
Regards,
Gary.

[Thunder]

It is NO reflection on the pilots skills, we may have a hard day at work and come home stressed and tired, but ours is nothing compared to what those lads and ladies have to endure, and they do it without question.

Gary.

Unfortunately it is a reflection on his skills, these guys are there because they are the best or at least are meant to be the best. The pilot made a mistake pure and simple so his skills are questionable same as anyone else making a mistake in their own job. These guys/girls do a sterling service but they know the risks and lifestyle of the job before they sign the dotted line, so why would they question it? Having worked in Iraq myself for 2 years (2003-2005) and for the best part of it under frequent mortar/rocket attack I can relate to the day to day risks faced by our forces. I knew the risks involved before going and I saw the risks first hand while there, but at the end of the day no one forced me to go or indeed stay there.

Wasn't this the crash when there was an Afghan civil pax fight awaiting take off and was holding just off the runway? The Harrier was making a bee line for it so the pilot elected to stay with the a/c until he managed to manoeuvre the stricken a/c away from it.

[joost900]

My collugues were there when this happend.

Film has been made by the French, they were told pilot was distracted by Flares fired from his Leader/wingman..But I am in no position to confirm it as I was not there.
He discovered too late his altitude, resulting is this mishap.

Grtz
Joost

[iaint]

Was definitely a write off... I can't confirm if there were flares fired or not, as I didn't have view of the pair (I was out there at the time), but from the video (and memory) this aircraft was down second... I say that as there is a Harrier taxiing back in the video and the also the runway was shut for a while after... Would also have been strange for the other aircraft to be releasing flares whilst on the ground...


Iain

[KINROTATE]

It was not unusual to see Harriers dumping flares below 50 feet over the runway - they bounce! Many were the times the French M2000N's would do this as they were taking off 'clean' and still over the runway. Whether these (Harrier) were an intensional action or happened as a result of a radar spike on the airfield who knows........ As Iain says it was defo a write off. The fuselage was supported on a bed of cargo nets, on top of triple linked cargo pallets.

[Flyingmonster]

I have just found this...

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/1601 ... s17may.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hope its ok to post!