Originally Posted by
sharpend
Well I think I am qualified to reply as I was that pilot who avoided the old folks home whilst wrestling with the controls of a stricken jet. At least that is what was said. My citation in The London Gazette states: 'he resolved to delay such action (ejection) until clear of the ...suburbs' . Personally. I cannot really recall what was going thro my mind other than I had to get on the ground before I bled to death. Like most in this drastic situation one is dealing frantically with the emergency and not thinking too much about the old peoples home, even if you know that one was close. Actually, often after ejection, the aeroplane changes course set by the pilot and crashed where he least expected it to
But your press statement all those years ago stated you couldn’t see a thing for a while, so how did you see the “old folks home” to avoid it?
'All I was aware of was a great thump in the face, a tremendous noise and I was completely blind,' Sharp said Wednesday in the first public statement on the incident that occurred two weeks ago in the skies over southern England.
'I wanted to open my eyes but I couldn't open the left one at all. My right eye was full of blood.
'I couldn't speak to the navigator at first, but I was able to see the instruments, a bit blurred,' said the 37-year-old pilot, who flies from the Royal Air Force Chivenor base in Devon.
With the inch-thick windshield shattered 'my cockpit was the noisiest place in the world,' he said. 'It was three times the force of a hurricane, we were doing 500 mph.'
Because of the noise, Sharp said he was unable to communicate with ground control but eventually was able to see the ground and make a landing.
'We survived thanks to instinct, adrenalin, experience and a hell of a lot of luck,' he said.
Or was it Lester, your Nav, that called it out so you could avoid it?