MadBob & Sharpend, that's the one. As I recall it was a Friday, my girlfriend was coming down to stay for the weekend.
I only got involved as I was one of only two members of the station camera club, the other was with me when we passed the fire engine going the other way as we left town. On arriving at camp a few minutes later, the Snowdrops were already looking for us, and suggested that we make our way to Whittingham crossroads, armed with as much film as we could find, and photograph everything in situ.
I had seen deceased people before, funerals and road accidents, but nothing could have prepared me for the carnage.
We were told later that as part of an FRA, the profile called for a high speed run at 250 feet, climb while inverting, to 500, look ahead, still inverted, to see an IP (pretty much to confirm the NAVWASS Position) and roll wings level as the aircraft descended back to 250.
According to eye witnesses, sitting outside the pub and well used to seeing that same profile, at that point, the Jag was confronted with a flock of birds just as it got to the top of the inverted roll.
The aircraft pulled, then rolled nearly wings level. At that point the first seat came out but with a large -A and sink rate to match, the aircraft was almost in the ground by the time the seat cleared the canopy.
One 'chute did deploy, but only just clear of the airframe and not the tree line. The other occupant was still in the aircraft at impact. The subsequent explosion made a crater, which I was still able to find find ten years later when in the area.
This wasn't just a crash, it was a loss of colleagues. Although I didn't know the crew, they wore the same uniform as us, and had perished doing their part of the job that we were all paid for.
We handled the remains as we would have wanted ours to be treated. There is a grim dark humour to getting through such tasks, fortified by the knowledge that the deceased are well out of it, and things can't get any worse for them. A bin bag is still a bin bag.
Thinking back, we had no information on armament or pyrotechnic impact of a recently crashed and still smouldering wreck. There was no H&S brief on unexploded weapons, and a real urgency to photograph and recover remains asap.
Once the light had faded, having handed over all of the film to the RAF Police, we went straight to Alnmouth train station to collect my girlfriend. I had to explain that we were at the end of a non standard day, and that things were going to be less than representative of a normal weekend at Boulmer.
I don't suppose we will ever know why the Jag went into that field, and we may never know why the Firefly ended up as it did at the weekend.
Sometimes we just never find out. I think it is healthy to look at possible causes, but very unfair to suggest that Pilot Error is likely, simply because there is no evidence of mechanical failure or other interference. When an airframe is effectively destroyed, evidence is going to be lost.
To issue a warning about not instinctively pulling up while inverted, well that might be handy. But to decide, on the basis of people who are sitting outside a pub on a sunny afternoon, drinking, that the pilot pulled to avoid a bird, forgetting he was upside down, that's a stretch.
A great many beers were consumed in the bar later, by us, and by the crash guard who assisted in the tagging & bagging, but I don't recall any of us getting drunk, we just drank the beer and felt lost. I couldn't find the words to describe to Catherine what we had seen that afternoon, but I'm sure she got the idea. Almost 39 years later, I still remember some of the details with horrible clarity.