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Old 27th Apr 2005, 13:04
  #15 (permalink)  
ShyTorque

Avoid imitations
 
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Wandering the FIR and cyberspace often at highly unsociable times
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Friend of mine once put down a Buccaneer, with total hydraulics failure, on the runway at St Mawgan.

No flaps, no gear, no airbrakes. Threshold speed of about 200 kts. The drop tanks, which were thought to be empty and kept on board to prevent the aircraft flipping over, wore through on the tarmac and the leaking fuel from them caused two major fireballs, the first way behind the aircraft, the second briefly engulfed it.

An (impressive) video was taken of the event. As the Bucc came to rest, the canopy opened within a second. Two crew jumped out and exited the camera frame, stage left, running like hell. Quite a while afterwards, the fire engines, which had been on the threshold and had to give chase up the runway, appeared wide stage right.

Don't think he would have done so well on the grass.......
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