Harrier mid air
Indeed a very sad day and I lost a close friend. John and I were on the same entry and squadron at Cranwell and continued our training together through Valley & Chivenor. He was best man at my wedding in 1971 and, indeed, met his future wife there.
He had a lovely sense of humour and I shall always remember him for his 'decoy' technique for chatting up girls in pubs and his hilarious antics in 'encouraging' passengers to leave our train compartment so that we could have its use to ourselves.
Sadly I attended 2 more funerals of fellow trainees in the next 2 months as a result of flying accidents. Not a good year.