Originally Posted by
Auxtank
$100M buys you an aircraft with a Checklist procedure you surely cannot screw up on.
I believe the Hawk intake blanks were mentioned earlier in the thread.
Originally they were separate blanks (ie not tied together) and one day early on in Hawk flying at Brawdy - on the 'Armed' Line - the stbd blank was missed by G/crew and Pilot,engine started ok and taxied round to rwy threshold ok - when the pilot shoved the throttle forward to roll,the blank gave up the ghost and shattered - thence into the engine and wrecked it.
Result - Blanks tied together.
I am not saying it is relevant to this incident but just an illustration of ''if something can be done wrong - somebody will eventually do it wrong''.