Recall an incident whilst I was at Akrotiri in 1965/66 on TASF (which was situated right at the end of the runway). I was sitting in the cockpit carrying out a turnround on a Lyneham Britannia, when I saw a pair of B(I)8s taking off. Three or four hundred yards before they got to us and were then at about 80/100 feet, the trail aircraft suddenly started yawing rapidly from side to side. Realising it was not likely to stay in the air, I and a colleague rushed back to the door (in case the damn thing came our way – at one point, it was facing directly at the Britannia!), to see the trail aircraft heading rapidly for the ground (albeit in almost horizontal flight). Two hundred yards after it passed the end of the runway, it hit the ground fairly heavily and slid for another three or four hundred yards across the scrub, taking with it the landing light poles and shedding bits of structure. We got to it just as the crew got out, shaken, but none the worse for their experience, but all of us were quickly covered in a layer of yellow dust. Once the crash crew arrived, we went back to the line hut.
Twenty minutes later, I was told by my shift boss, to go out and put the undercarriage locks in place. I explained to him, that this would be slightly difficult, since the starboard main u/c was about two hundred yards behind the aircraft, the port u/c had collapsed completely and the nose wheel bay had taken a direct hit by a light pole. He was adamant that I did as I was told! So off I trudged with said u/c locks to join the rest of the (by then) sightseers. I still remember the ribbing I got for fitting a lock to the undercarriage, which was laying in glorious isolation in the sand, way behind the wreck!!
I believe the resultant enquiry blamed the pilot (the squadron boss) for flying too close to the efflux of the lead aircraft and flaming out the port engine.