Red Arrow crashes near Bournemouth

cu3ed said:
Those planes where taken out of use for a year after they discovered problems with the ejector seats.
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Rubbish, don't lie out of your ass, our jets where only grounded for a week last year due to the problem. (Which fortunately fell during our mid season "eng week" break)

Our ejection seats are now checked thoroughly and regularly for the cracking using the latest NDT and Ultrascanning techniques. Even this small cracking which occurred (on a small amount of seats, none of which where in our jets.) would not affect the seats capability to eject the pilot.
 
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I'm pretty sure these jets are checked and checked again before they go up.

We will know what happened in time and only then.
 
Sin_Chase said:
If this was the case, he transmitted mayday and could aim it safely, why no ejection prior to impact? Surely the ejection system was in working order?
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Even if it was he may not have had sufficient altitude to eject safely, especially if he was trading altitute for speed to maintain control - or had a nose-down attitude.
 
Lashout_UK said:
Even if it was he may not have had sufficient altitude to eject safely, especially if he was trading altitute for speed to maintain control - or had a nose-down attitude.
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not that it's anything solid to go off but there are plenty of videos knocking around of pilots ejecting while ON the deck, very close to the deck and otherwise.

I think the bottom line is when you are likely going to die is there ever a BAD time to eject?
 
The Martin Baker Mark 10 which is fitted to the Hawk Mk 1 is a zero zero seat.

From Wiki:
Zero-zero ejection seat

A zero-zero ejection seat is designed to safely extract upward and land its occupant from a grounded stationary position (i.e., zero altitude and zero airspeed), specifically from aircraft cockpits. The zero-zero capability was developed to help aircrews escape upward from unrecoverable emergencies during low-altitude and/or low-speed flight, as well as ground mishaps. Before this capability, ejections could only be performed above minimum altitudes and airspeeds.

Zero-zero technology uses small rockets to propel the seat upward to an adequate altitude and a small explosive charge to open the parachute canopy quickly for a successful parachute descent, so that reliance on airspeed and altitude is no longer required for proper deployment of the parachute.
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I was under the impression that a zero-zero seat offers no guarantee - i.e. if you're at the wrong altitude and you leave the plane with a poor vector (i.e. it's nose down at a 15 degree angle at 100 knots) then you'll hit the deck before the chute's deployed properly.

I stand to be corrected though!

Regardless, rest in peace. My condolences to his family and friends.
 
Not quite, Zero Zero's rocket packs fire you about 300m in the air regardless of speed/altitude etc. Howver the A/C Attitude is very important. If you eject at low height pointing down or sideways only the very latest most advanced ejection seat (F-35 etc) *may* save your life as they have a microprocessor onbaord which knows your attitude on ejection and modulates the rocket motors to try and get you away safely.
 
This is a sad loss for his family and the Red Arrows.

The crash deos have a striking resemblence to the Blue Angels crash a few years ago, the cause of that was the pilot blacking out while performing a high g turn - this may not be the case here but only time will tell.

R.I.P Red4 and my condolences to his family.
 
The Radios are operated from the main battery bus bar and there is also a backup battery, so he would have comms no matter if the engine or genny failed.
If he suffered a flame out at the height and speed that he was at it would be very unlikely he would be able to re-light and would most likely have been looking for a safe location to ditch prior to ejecting. From the reports it seems the Aircarft stalled and rolled over meaning his ejection was not at a safe attitude and seems to be what happend.

The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder will hopefully shed light on why this happend. Its a tragic loss and my thoughts are with his family and friends...
 
Mad_Jay said:
Rubbish, don't lie out of your ass, our jets where only grounded for a week last year due to the problem. (Which fortunately fell during our mid season "eng week" break)

Our ejection seats are now checked thoroughly and regularly for the cracking using the latest NDT and Ultrascanning techniques. Even this small cracking which occurred (on a small amount of seats, none of which where in our jets.) would not affect the seats capability to eject the pilot.
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Pretty sure they where talking about on the news earlier.
 
RIP Red 4 - this is terrible news. Saw the Reds a few weeks back at Newcastle (NI). They aren't seen too often over this way so it's always extra special to see them.

I really hope the Reds will continue - you know what the numpties in this country are like who say it is a waste of money etc. They are simply amazing, another reason to be proud of our armed forces. Really can't imagine how the rest of the team are feeling right now but I'm sure they are seriously strong characters. Thoughts and prayers with them all.
 
Guys some of the speculations made in this thread are completely un-needed. Just think if the any of the family or friends happened to come across any of it. Let the investigators figure out what happened and leave out the speculations. I'm surprised Mad_Jay hasn't erupted by now as he personally knows and has lost what I can only imagine, a great friend.

The aviation community is a relatively small one and an incident such as this one hits us all hard, I know I've been thinking about it since I heard yesterday. This being said I'd like to pay my respects to Flt Lt Jon "Eggman" Egging and his family, friends and of course the rest of the RAFAT.

Cheers
Ross
 
I just saw his wife give an interview on the news. She showed incredible composure given the circumstances. They were overhead for the Balloon Fiesta last weekend, such a shame, they're always incredible to watch.
 
sigma said:
So you believe the 'news' over someone who works as part of the flight team? :confused: Wow.
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Umm I don't know he works for the flight team.

Looking at how ive typed that maybe as it about a year ago it happened, maybe that's what they said.

And ya know what...for some one being a professional I wouldn't just go and say " don't lie out of your ass", when i have mis heard.
 
Saddened even more that the display wasn't part of the routine. They deviated at the end to put on an "agreed" mini display to the Bournemouth Airport Tower and spectators waiting at the airport to say "thanks" for having them, which they choose to do upon their approach fairly last minute (although as I say, it had been agreed that it could be done if the RAs wanted to, which they did). They just didn't decide until shortly before they were clear to land. It's amazing how one small decision can lead to such a sad event.
 
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