Following on from the Nav. ejection, a caption on a Squadron Prints picture of XS571 includes the following,
“On the morning of 21 November 1977 it suffered a nose wheel steering fault during take off and veered off the runway at a speed of 90kts. Its crew, Flt Lt s G***s and Flt Lt A M**r, both ejected but the Phantom, still on the ground, came to rest with little damage. It must be one of the few aircraft still airworthy after being abandoned by its crew”.
I arrived on 43 in 1981 as an A/Eng Tech A/P, and did not know anything about the incident, can anyone fill in any of the details?
In 1983, the then CO took a twin sticker, (XT875 I think), for 'a last check flight' before flying to Cyprus for the ACP, (he was relatively new to the squadron at the time).
A few minutes later, there was a loud screech and a double bang. No ejections, but XT875 had gone sideways down the runway, blown the main wheels, and ground the brake units down quite a bit!
Cause? Nose wheel steering runaway according the the F720B!
We were 'unable to reproduce fault', and there were no repeat events.