Krystal,
I was planeguard alongside Eagle when the Vixen incident occured, grandstand seat
Late afternoon recoveries, the Vixen had been low level (we were off Wales, somewhere) and had a fairly grotty vision of life, with salt spray over the windscreen. Recovery course was almost directly into the setting sun, so no surprise when the line up went pear shaped just before coming over the round down
During the bolter, the stbd wing tip took out bits of two Buccs and another Vixen, parked in Fly 2 and Fly 1.
Having got back airborne (just....), a divert to Valley with the wingtip shaved down to an inch or two of the outboard aileron hinge followed. About as close as we got to being needed on planeguard!
Johnfairr,
The Vixen ditching was Friday 13th, another verse to the Sea Vixen song:- Bruce ? was the pilot. IIRC, not a lack of noise, but classic Sea Vixen over rotate off the bow cat, with some nifty boat handling to avoid running over the wreck
