Originally Posted by
Ridger
I was ground-crew for D_n, not on the day in question but I remember it well. Really really nice guy, think he was a JENGO before becoming flight crew. I'll need a GR7 driver to comment really but I think it was a flap controller failure which meant the flaps didn't retract when the nozzles were moved 'forward' and the word on the street was he was the only pilot to have survived this failure. The pic below shows he did well to eject in time! I did his first see-off when he returned to work. Understandably he checked the flaps quite a few times!
Incidentally, I'm pretty sure AVM Harv Smyth, the new UK Space Commander and similarly nice guy was also on 3(F) at the same time.
My wife ended up as a witness to that as she saw it as it flew over her car as she approached the Main Gate on her way to work in SCAF.
This incident (and the three week clean-up after it) changed the views of many of Laarbruch's "Fire Orders" in that the direction of the wind was taken into consideration of "Composite Material Fires" leading to alternate Muster Areas to avoid smoke inhalation from them.