I was a holding officer (APO) at Honington in 1977, just prior to my own jet course at Linton. Worked on the 237 OCU ops desk. Got daily bollockings from a certain Wg Cdr Parr, mainly caused by me not having a clue what he was talking about on the squawk box because no-one bothered to train me before leaving me to work 12 hour shifts. I sadly remember Steve Noble, a good mate there, later killed in a Red Arrows Gnat crash during a display practice with a passenger whose knee caught the flap lever and retracted them.
Anyone remember the 237 OCU Bucc that finished up in a Welsh lake? Pulled 13G plus to avoid a Hunter in the LFA and the tail came off.
Or the one that came back from the range with mud splashes on it from its own 28lb practice bomb? Trainee pilot got target fixation. I remember seeing the white faces of the pilot and staff Nav as they went to watch the video and debrief.....
And the later one (1990s) that was landed with a total hydraulics failure? No landing gear, flaps, brakes or airbrakes. An "interesting" landing, 230 kts touchdown, in manual and with gear up, made an awful lot of sparks.... and two large fireballs from the fuel in the drop tanks that they thought had been used / jettisoned. Tanks were left on to prevent the aircraft digging a wing in and rolling over on the runway. Total hydraulics failure also prevented fuel jettison, no-one knew that until then! As the tanks touched the tarmac they were holed and the sparks ignited the escaping fuel, first one side then the other. The second fireball engulfed the aircraft but as it continued down the runway it emerged again relatively unscathed. It was all videoed, the last thing it showed was the canopy opening and two crew jumping out and running like hell! The firetrucks sirens were far away in the distance, as they were chasing the aircraft from the downwind threshold.
The pilot (another mate of mine, later became Wg Cdr RAFAT) said afterwards they should have banged out, that particular Bucc never flew again. They gave him a Green Endorsement and scrapped the aircraft.