Originally Posted by Geehovah
Remembering said incident very well, lets not get off track.
Mr McDonnell spent many hours designing sim plugs and aq rounds that simulate precisely what you should see from an armed aircraft when its carrying only training rounds. The eminent psychologist explained this very well at the CM.
And I agree, both guys were top chaps and did what they were trained to do. Just eternally grateful that the Jaguar pilot landed safely, albeit not as planned.
I am not getting off track. Sim plugs fit neatly into the palm of the hand and Aq sidewinders look nothing like live sidewinders, so that clears that bit up, the crew should have seen the difference on the walk round. For an unarmed ac the role state would have said Aquisition S/w either stn 2 or 8 and sim plugs stn 3 and or 7, the weapon state would have been blank but this A/c had the correct load of 2 sw on each i/b pylon and sparrows on 3,4,6 and 7 and a gun with 1000 rounds entered, so either the pilot was distracted when he signed the book or careless or more likely simply forgetful when actually in the air. It was implied that the whole accident wouldn't have happened had the plumbers put a piece of tape over the master arm switch as they should have done. HOGWASH it became SOP to put tape over master arm switches only after the Jag was shot down because it was patently obvious aircrew had the attention span of goldfish and couldn't remember seeing big pointy things hanging underneath their aeroplane and so needed reminding every 15 seconds or so. Once it became SOP I can never recall a single instance of the tape ever being omitted whether on excercise, QRA or any other occasion the plane was armed.
I have no doubt that the pilot involved in this unfortunate accident was a top bloke but it seems unfair to shift a share of his blame onto the guys who armed the aircraft when they were not at fault in the first place.