Birds
I watched XV256 crash. Initially I thought, from the angle that I was watching it from, near the Med Centre, on my way to breakfast after night shift, that it had gone down near the car club. After rushing back to the line, I discovered that it was XV256 and it had gone down in the woods beyond the end of the runway with a larger number of personnel than normal. I initially thought because of the number of people on board, that it was a detachment flight, but later learned that it was a crew training flight. The previous evening, I had replaced the Aileron Trim Gearbox on XV256, so you can imagine the things that were running through my head that morning. I later learned that the runway was littered with dead gulls, not geese, which although eased my mind, did not help with the fact that we had lost two fine pilots.
I seem to remember it was the flight engineer that broke his leg, and also seem to remember he actually got back to the aircraft in a brave attempt to rescue his colleagues. I was a 19 year old JT at the time of the accident. But I remember that day so well. RIP Flt Lt Anthony & FO Belcher.
As an aside to this, I never saw myself as employed by the RAF, I served with the RAF, with many good brave men, many of whom are now gone, see you on the other side guys.