14 replies to this topic

[BorderReiver]

Hello All

Please forgive the off-topic nature of the post, but I know some of you are very interested in aviation as well as motorsport.

Just to let you know, at the Duxford Airshow today, a Fairey Firefly came down in as yet unexplained incident, unfortunately both crew (apparently members of the RNAS Historical Squadron, though as yet they haven't been officially identified) were killed.

A very sad day.

[WGD706]

DUXFORD AIR SHOW CRASH

Two pilots have died in a crash during an air show at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Cambridgeshire.
Their aircraft, a vintage Royal Naval Fairey Firefly, was carrying out a manoeuvre when it dropped out of the sky and ploughed into a field.
The body of one of the pilots was found in the field and the other was believed to have been thrown from the plane.
The crash was witnessed by thousands of aircraft enthusiasts and was captured on film by a production team making a video of the air show.
"It went into a rolling movement. The pilot appeared to be struggling to regain control but didn't have enough height to recover and the aircraft plunged into the ground," production team member Graham Boyd told Sky News.
An air show spokeswoman said officials were trying to piece together what had gone wrong.
The plane was understood to have just completed an aerobatic display and was returning to land.
The Firefly was part of a fleet of military aircraft based at the Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton in Somerset.
A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said an investigation would be launched into the cause of the crash.
The veteran aircraft, which entered service in 1949, was one of only a handful of airworthy Fireflys and underwent a two-year re-build in the 1990s.
More than 50,000 people were expected to attend the 'Flying Legends' air show over the weekend.
Aircraft such as Spitfires, Hurricanes, Bearcats, Tigercats and Hellfires are taking part in the event.
Many of them have appeared in films such as Pearl Harbor and TV dramas including Poirot and Foyles War.
The event is being held to celebrate the skill and courage of the pilots who flew in what the organisers describe as a "classic age of air combat".

http://www.sky.com/s...1096784,00.html
http://icwales.icnet...-name_page.html

[Gerr]

Very sad news.

Very similar to a crash at the Canadian National Exhibition in 1977. A CWH Firefly plunged into Lake Ontario, killing the pilot. Don't know if the cause was ever found.

[Patrice L'Rodent]

I just saw a snippet on TV. The aircraft just bellied in at high speed recovering from a dive, although there did seem to be some instability in the seconds before impact. As the saying goes, "The earth rose up and dealt a mighty blow" May the pilots RIP.
Does anyone know if this the ex HMAS Melbourne RAN Firefly recently restored? And was that the airframe that sat on top a pole in Griffith NSW for years with the prop windmilling in the breeze?
Pat

[Eric McLoughlin]

This was the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm Historic Flight Firefly. It has been a feature of the British airshow scene for over 30 years and had just returned from a two year refurbishment. The video seems to indicate that the accident was due to an improperly executed roll - probably due to entering the manoeuvre at too low an airspeed. A sad day, yet again, for the warbird fraternity.

[paulhooft]

This is bad news,
I just had a wonderful flight with as a passenger in a Harvard,
the same saturday around 3 oclock over the south of the Netherlands..
That plane was even older, 1942..
Paul Hooft

[Catalina Park]

Originally posted by Patrice L'Rodent
I just saw a snippet on TV. The aircraft just bellied in at high speed recovering from a dive, although there did seem to be some instability in the seconds before impact. As the saying goes, "The earth rose up and dealt a mighty blow" May the pilots RIP.
Does anyone know if this the ex HMAS Melbourne RAN Firefly recently restored? And was that the airframe that sat on top a pole in Griffith NSW for years with the prop windmilling in the breeze?
Pat

It was an ex Royal Australian Navy Firefly that was sold to the UK in 1966 that crashed at Duxford and I think the serial number WB271.
I think the one on the pole at Griffith is WD828, it was still on the pole last year when I was there.

The one that crashed in Lake Ontario was the former Royal Australian Navy WD901 and WH632 crashed in Victoria, British Columbia in 1992.

[Ray Bell]

They all seem to be rejecting their northern hemisphere homes...

Are there any others left flying?

[Catalina Park]

I think there are a couple of them in Aus in flying condition and a couple overseas being restored.

[Eric McLoughlin]

According to BBC news, there are two other airworthy examples, but none in Britain. I know the Canadian Warbird Heritage group have one of them but I don't know where the third one is. The Firefly is not quite as "sexy" as some of its contemporaries but I hope someone takes on a project to get another one flying in the UK again. This particular aircraft suffered a wheels up landing at an air display back in 1973 and, at that time, sparked off a major debate as to whether these "old" and rare aircraft should be flown at all.

[Gary Davies]

Terribly sad. RIP both aircrew.

[BorderReiver]

I've just seen the footage for the first time (I first heard it on the radio).

It looks very like a stall to me, almost as if the pilot didn't carry enough speed into his final climb.

Unfortunately he was so low he had no time to regain airspeed and level off.

Of course, there could be a thousand other mechanical explainations, we'll just have to wait and see.

[Eric McLoughlin]

It bore an uncanny resemblance tp the P-39 Airacobra crash at Biggin Hill two or three years ago.

[275 GTB-4]

Originally posted by Catalina Park


It was an ex Royal Australian Navy Firefly that was sold to the UK in 1966 that crashed at Duxford and I think the serial number WB271.
I think the one on the pole at Griffith is WD828, it was still on the pole last year when I was there.

The one that crashed in Lake Ontario was the former Royal Australian Navy WD901 and WH632 crashed in Victoria, British Columbia in 1992.

http://www.museum-of-flight.org.au/

The firefly on display at Navy Museum at Nowra NSW Australia looks airworthy

[Eric McLoughlin]

The fact that it is listed as "Static Display" would indicate that it is not airworthy. It looks virtually identical to the one that crashed yesterday.