Aah, the Lightning. I spent about 9 years at Binbrook as a Flight Systems Technician, in AEEF, ASF and 5 Sqn. I even helped scrap the fleet and close the station down.
During that time we had, in no particular order:
F3 display pilot climbed in an F6, pulled a rote, managed to get the gear up before he realised he was in a 6 not a 3 and sank back onto the runway. He managed to get the thing airborne but left most of the ventral tank and some of the tailplane behind.
F3 display pilot practicing just outside the fence, pulled a negative G turn, stalled at about 2000 feet and banged out. I saw that one happen. I even got to guard the wreck. Lucky me.
F6 on APC in Akrotiri shot himself down. Very neat trick, I thought, took real skill to do that.
T5 gear collapsed on landing when the brakes were applied. Stopped just short of the fence to missile city. Could have been messy.
Forget the model, but one a/c on its first flight after a check 3 in ASF suffered a reheat pump fire and ended up at RAF Dogger Bank.
Another driver forgot to lock the canopy and discovered that, yes, the canopy can clear the tailplane at 90 knots.
Another driver in an F6 had a close encounter with the North Sea and ended up pulling an estimated 13½G pull up - that a/c spent the next 3 and-a-bit years in ASF getting straightened out. This was one a/c that never again went on APC - the guns couldn't be harmonised.
An F6 sans Avons being manouvered round the hangar with an electric tug ended up sat on its jet pipe with an electric tug dangling from the nose gear and a very embarrased radar sergeant hanging on for dear life.
An F6 jumping its chocks at Golf Dispersal at Akrotiri and legging it for the storm drains at the edge of the bondu. Well done to the liney who managed to get a chock in front of the nose wheel!
We lost 2 more in my time but the pilots didn't survive. One in a spin, the other in a CFIT.
Frightening? It scared the cr@p out of me!