‘Christine’ takes a hit

[STENDEC North]

Recent news from RAF Wittering :rolleyes:

RAF Wittering can confirm a civilian vehicle has collided with the Harrier at the main gate whilst approaching the station on the northbound A1. There are no casualties and the matter has been referred to the Civilian Police. Our primary concern is the safety of all road users and the vehicle will be recovered as soon as practicable. There are no live munitions on the aircraft.

[TEEEJ]

"Christine" is serial ZD469. She has a colourful history of mishaps!

https://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?108535-New-Harrier-on-the-gate-RAF-Wittering&p=1739084#post1739084 (https://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?108535-New-Harrier-on-the-gate-RAF-Wittering&p=1739084#post1739084)
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.gmforum.com-vbulletin/620x759/christine_wittering_7c13bf82ea28567535e9b9ddc5c008703ff3f829 .jpg
https://twitter.com/RAFWittering1/status/1012795731235745792

[aw ditor]

I thought Christine was made of Fibreglass? Maybe not'.

[Chris Kebab]

...glad to be reassured that there were no live munitions on-board - any news on the pilot?

[Melchett01]

WTF??? How???? How many pints I wonder?

[PDR1]

I thought Christine was made of Fibreglass? Maybe not'.

"Christine" is ZD469 - a Harrier GR7A which was damaged BER on the ground by a rocket attack in Kandahar.

PDR

[Teamchief]

I have spent many hours attending to Christine after her misfortunes and worked with the guy whose head got trapped when the nose u/c doors shut......he was very lucky and doesn’t remember much of it!

When it was (badly) painted up and put on the main gate I remember joking that I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s tie down shackles broke and it rolled out onto the A1! I think I’ll shut up from now on!

[Party Animal]

Strangely enough, there is a 'Christine' in the Sentry fleet. Wonder how many other sqn's have a similarly unlucky airframe?

[sharpend]

Interesting from what the insurance company make of this. Rarely do a vehicle have air side insurance and whilst this is obviously not air side, it is on MOD property.

[Lima Juliet]

There was Damion - the Nimrod R1 - XW666. He eventually went for a swim in the Moray Firth!

[oxenos]

(badly) painted

On the contrary, the camouflage was too good for its own good.

[Yellow Sun]

There was Damion - the Nimrod R1 - XW666. He eventually went for a swim in the Moray Firth!

In the time I flew it, 666 was never referred to as Damian. It was something that appears to been invented by the spotterati following Art Stacey’s ditching.

YS

[Lima Juliet]

I heard quite a few 51 mates calling it that but it was 10 years after the swimming lessons :ok:

[hunterboy]

What was the story of the head and the nose wheel doors? Sounds like something we could all learn from.....

[Alber Ratman]

ZD469 lost a canopy out in North America in 2002 I do believe. She came back to Cottesmore in the back of a C17. I was involved in her return. She got her revenge on me 2 weeks later (indirectly.. )

[Stitchbitch]

What was the story of the head and the nose wheel doors? Sounds like something we could all learn from.....

At Laarparts in the late 90’s, ‘the jet that should not be named’ was being fettled in HMF. The unfortunate chap was working on something in the nose wheel well when there was an uncommanded gear retraction and the top of his head was pinned in the gear doors. Ouch. My memory of the cause is hazy, rumour control was pretty rife at the time. I’m sure someone more enlightened will be able to flesh out the details.

[NickB]

I have spent many hours attending to Christine after her misfortunes and worked with the guy whose head got trapped when the nose u/c doors shut......he was very lucky and doesn’t remember much of it!


Did this incident happen at RAF Laarbruch in the summer of 97 or 98? I only ask because there was an incident of this type at Laarbruch at that time and it coincided with the OM Summer Ball! I recall that it caused a bit of a stir, but thankfully the victim survived!

[NickB]

Sorry Sitchbitch - I'm not sure how I didn't see your post, but I'm certain it wasn't there when I posted mine :confused:
Anyway, sounds like we are both referring to the same incident - a friend of mine who was the SHASO at Laarbruch at that time he told me the story, so assume it was that jet.
This lovely weather we are enjoying at the moment in Central Southern England reminds me of happy summer days in Germany with a cold beer in hand :)

[Teamchief]

As Harriers left Laarbruch in 99 I think 97 or 98 would be right. Can’t remember the exact circumstances but the Harrier had a manual opening valve for the nose u/c doors. On shut down the lineys would pull and turn the tee handle that opened the doors. This would allow work in the u/c bay to be carried out. It would stay in this position all the time the a/c was on the ground. It was then part of a see off to check the tee handle was stowed and flush ( our heroes would also check it on their walk around). During maintenance though and doing gear retractions it was quite common to have the doors open with the nose gear retracted to check clearances. In these circumstances door jack gags should have been fitted. I would own up myself though to having retracted the gear, pulled the tee handle for a peer into the bay before resetting it, basically opening then closing the doors. When working on the NWS system there was also a check to steer off, select up and make sure the gear steered to 0 degrees before retracting. In this case the nose u/c ground lock would be fitted to stop the leg actually moving. The thing I can’t remember is whether it was a faulty valve or practice that caused the incident. The valves and their rigging had an issue and caused a number of state 2’s when tee handles that looked flush on take off left the doors open causing a nose gear unlocked indication. I could go on for ages about the through life issues of the door and u/c rigging of the Harrier........but I would bore all other than true Harrier Mafia chaps!

One final thing, it’s still criminal that such an iconic aircraft will be missing from the 100 Year Flypast, considering that the USMC are extending the life of theirs due to other platforms shortcomings!

[Stitchbitch]

Although criminal, there’s a small sliver of silver lining in that a few of our hovering hero’s will be in the flypast on the 10th, one will be flying another great Hawker design, the Hurricane.

[Teamchief]

Why do you say that. Same situation as many other museum pieces
OK I’ll bite! The USMC still regard the platform as a valuable asset and have extended its out of service date due to shortcomings in its crumbling Hornet fleet. Our fleet in 2010 was the most capable it had ever been with aircraft and maintenance facilities all having benefitted from the JUMP programme. The Harrier out of service date was to be 2018, it would have been a fitting send off for the 16 ship Harrier fly past of 2010 to have taken place as part of 100 Year celebrations.

[andytug]

I do hope that once it's all repaired they'll put a car-shaped "kill" sticker on the side of the cockpit!

[Jason Greenwood]

Its probably possible that a couple of guys on here are old mates of mine so will know that what I say is the truth. I was part of 2 of the accidents that (SWMNBN) was involved in.

The head trap incident took place in HMF hangar in Laarbruch in 98. SWMNBN was in the hangar after being road moved back from a detachment to Norway, where it had flown into telegraph wires , low level in a fjord. It had been in repair state for many months.

I was working in an opposite jet, refitting titanium heatshields in the engine bay (wing off-engine out).
SWMNBN was undergoing final undercarriage functional tests. There were 3 engineers working, a young lad in the cockpit retracting the UC, a corporal on headset giving verbal commands, and a sergeant acting as independent checker.

The UC had been cycled several times and everything was working ok, but on this particular attempt, as stated by Teamchief earlier, the legs came down, but the nose leg doors remained open. This normally points to a microswitch that sends the signal to shut the doors, once the leg is down, and centred, thus protecting the UC bay from damage when landing in the field etc. Lots of fragile hydraulic components.

For some unknown reason, the Cpl ended up in the nose UC bay, and must have knocked the microswitch , which sent the signal to the hydraulics to shut the doors.

I heard the bang as the SNCO pulled the door release handle, which luckily, was right next to him. This blew the doors open and the Cpl fell out, suffering massive head trauma.

I jumped out of my aircraft, and for the next hour or so, held the top of his head on until the German emergency services got him stable to move him to hospital.
Luckily he (PF) survived, and as Laarbruch shut down, he remained in hospital in Germany for many months. He returned to Cottesmore after recovering.
SWMNBN was eventually flown back to Cottesmore after being certified fit to fly, and I believe took a birdstrike on its return journey.

A few years later, on detachment to Cold Lake Canada, I was part of the airframe team, responsible for the wing removal, jacking and levelling of the aircraft for an engine change. The engine had been changed overnight and as the day shift, we were putting the wing back on.

We had a Canadian marine crane driver who was unfamiliar with the procedure. He was fully briefed and hand-signals and procedures were confirmed. We had fitted 5 out of the 6 bolts that held the wing to the fuselage, but the last bolt was being a pain in the arse, and wouldn't line up.

We gave the crane driver a signal to slew the crane ever so slightly and for some unknown reason, decided to jib the crane on a monumental scale.
The crane pulled the aircraft heavily to the side and it fell off its jacks, landing on the hangar floor and damaging the nose, nose UC doors and various other lower panels.

A sooty (engine techie) was underneath at the time, doing the final valve connections to the engine, when he heard the crack of the jack legs, and luckily rolled out of the way before the aircraft hit the floor.

We once again repaired the aircraft, with a team of specialist structures lads, and the aircraft flew home. I believe it suffered a birdstrike on its home journey.
The final nail in coffin was the Mortar attack that damaged it beyond economical repair.

I had left the squadron by then so cannot comment on events.

All I can say, is that I am the person who gave her the nickname of "Christine". I was brought up in a family of rock n roll fans who loved that Stephen King film. I was made to watch it loads of times and i've read the book several times also, so it seemed fitting to call this aircraft that name.
I have no proof but I'm sticking to my story and if someone else comes forward as to who gave her that name, I'm willing to listen.

[Nolongerin]

I cannot personally confirm the details of the story, but it aligns with everything I had heard about Christine over my (very long ) association with the Harrier, apart from the naming of the aircraft, I hadn’t known how that had come about.

[57mm]

Looks like a DH to me....

[AF03-111]

A few years later, on detachment to Cold Lake Canada,.

I was on that Det - Maple Flag 2000 IIRC

[Hot 'n' High]

A friend of mine was Deps AEO on a Stovie Sqn and, one evening after night flying at VL, there was much pushin', shovin' and general agro trying to get all the jets to where they should be in the Shed to recover them for the flypro the following day, the SHARs having gone TU in style and considerable numbers during the course of the day. Trying times for Deps trying to keep the show on the road in amongst birds going sick up the ying-yang. :uhoh:

Eventually, a weary Deps agreed to some non-standard parking for a sick jet outside the Sqn buildings adjacent to the Shed so it could be worked on there with access to power and stuff even though there was no room at the inn so to speak. Tired and fed up, Deps finally decided to call it a night, jumped into his pride-and-joy hot hatchback, engaged reverse and was doing quite well until a SHAR Tailplane appeared through the rear window of said HHB, it's appearance announced in a snow storm of shards of broken glass!!! :eek:

Yep, got it in one. As he said in the bar recounting the event a few days after, "What made it worse was I'd authorized the jet to be parked there! And how did I not see something that big parked right behind my car????". As consolation, I bought him another beer, there being nothing else I could offer the poor chap! AS, if you see this, hiya Mate! Hope all's good! Looong time no see! :ok:

H 'n' H

[dan eccles]

Christine does have a kill marking, but I can't post the pic.

[Jason Greenwood]

I was on that Det - Maple Flag 2000 IIRC

It was yes. Were you on IV Sqn? You will recognise my name then.

[AF03-111]

Yep, I think so. I was the SqIntO....