Lakenheath F-15 down, North Sea

[harrogate]

Rescue chopper just returning to Himberside direct from search area.

[Auxtank]

There's a lot of hardware and a lot people working hard out there at the moment gums.
Can't be a straightforward situation.

[Jonty]

From what I understand the vis is down to zero in places

[nowhereasfiled]

Anything to suggest he/she managed to punch out before impact?
6+ hours is a dangerously LONG time to be floating about in the North Sea of all places.

Fingers crossed the airman is found alive and complaining.

[AnglianAV8R]

Coastguard 913 (S92) just arrived back at Humberside Airport from search area.
The SAR choppers and RNLI lifeboats appeared to go to a fairly well defined area in the course of their search ops.
Not sure how it can be suggested a position isn't known ?

[Twitter]

Early days Gums... That used to be the refueling training area and then the fighters would go off and do interceptions.
A few possibilities for bumps - apart from the usual system failures.
I am sure the mil. radar station concerned had a fix if the incident was reported at the time.
Good luck to all concerned.

[mercurydancer]

Vis is fine from what I can see, 13km at least. I can see the sea as far as Redcar from where I live. Lots of activity around 10 am but not a lot since.

[harrogate]

Originally Posted by Jonty

From what I understand the vis is down to zero in places

Shipping forecast for Humber and Dogger both state 'very poor visibility.

[SAR Bloke]

Originally Posted by gums

Salute!

In the area of the most experienced air defense radar system in the world, I find it hard to fathom not having a position for a crash or loss of contact within a mile of the event.

Maybe one of the Brits here can explain to this old interceptor pilot.

Gums asks....

You are making an assumption that they don’t have that information. Even when you know the exact location from radar then it is not always as easy to find a ditched aircraft as you might think, a single person even harder (although presence of a parachute might help). Add winds aloft and sea current movement then the ejectee could potentially be some distance from the aircraft. PLBs/EPIRBs help but they aren’t always reliable. Once you found the person, recovery can also take some time depending on the situation. Fingers crossed that the pilot has been found and is ok.

[nowhereasfiled]

Lots of RNLI and civvie boats converging on what can only be the search area

[wiggy]

Originally Posted by gums

Salute!

In the area of the most experienced air defense radar system in the world, I find it hard to fathom not having a position for a crash or loss of contact within a mile of the event.

Maybe one of the Brits here can explain to this old interceptor pilot.

Gums asks....

Not sure about the "kit" now but many years ago I was involved loosely and briefly in SAROPs (as best you can in an F4) for another wings aircraft off Skegness..( a bit to the south of the area of today's search)..we had a last known position (from Air Defence) to within a mile but sadly saw nothing..I don't think the Nimrod and then helos that took over from us fared any better..

Chuck in a bit of low viz ( sea fog/"Haar") and it can be a demanding environment for SAR.

[zed3]

I was driving along the Marine Drive in Scarborough at around 1140 and noticed that Filey Brigg and Flamborough Head to the south could not be seen due to mist.

[mercurydancer]

9 degrees sea temperature as measured at Redcar RNLI now.

[USERNAME_]

According to the BBC defence correspondent, wreckage has been found, but no pilot.

Twitter

[Auxtank]

****e vis has hampered the operation since mid morning.
Red areas denote vis < 2.5NM though has progressively cleared during the day.

[gums]

Salute SARBloke!

I flew combat SAR two tours in SEA, and I get your point. Never worked the ocean, but in the jungle we had to get a fix within a 100 yards to get the Jolly close.


Our basic procedure was to use the ADF feature of our radio and then do a cloverleaf to get another LOP crossing 90 deg from first pass. A visual was worth a million dollars of avionics, just as it is today in the A2A arena.

I have a bad feeling about this one.

Gums sends...

[orionsbelt]

Humberside METAR current

Current EGNJ 151420Z 05006KT 010V100 4500 HZ SCT007 BKN013 20/16 Q1016 and this is 10/20 Kmtr inland, Suggest that the dew point / temp and wind were perfect for thick fog this morning which must have made terrible conditions for the search.
Would suggest it was a lot worse this morning, and also take a look at the current Met Office Satellite Visible image.
***
Note the Temp /dew points
METAR/SPECI from EGNJ, Humberside (United Kingdom).
SA 15/06/2020 11:50->METAR EGNJ 151150Z VRB01KT 3500 BR SCT006 BKN010 17/14 Q1017=
SA 15/06/2020 11:20->METAR EGNJ 151120Z VRB02KT 3000 BR BKN006 16/14 Q1017=
SA 15/06/2020 10:50->METAR EGNJ 151050Z VRB03KT 2600 BR BKN005 16/14 Q1017=
SA 15/06/2020 10:20->METAR EGNJ 151020Z VRB03KT 2600 BR BKN005 15/14 Q1017=
SA 15/06/2020 09:50->METAR EGNJ 150950Z VRB02KT 2600 BR BKN005 15/14 Q1017=
SA 15/06/2020 09:20->METAR EGNJ 150920Z VRB03KT 2600 BR SCT003 BKN005 14/14 Q1017=
SA 15/06/2020 08:50->METAR EGNJ 150850Z VRB01KT 2600 BR SCT003 BKN005 14/14 Q1017=
SA 15/06/2020 08:20->METAR EGNJ 150820Z VRB02KT 2200 BR SCT001 OVC003 14/14 Q1017=
SA 15/06/2020 07:50->METAR EGNJ 150750Z VRB02KT 2200 BR SCT001 OVC003 13/13 Q1017=
SA 15/06/2020 07:20->METAR EGNJ 150720Z VRB01KT 1600 BR OVC001 13/13 Q1017=

[harrogate]

Originally Posted by nowhereasfiled

Lots of RNLI and civvie boats converging on what can only be the search area

There's also a large SAR Response vessel on location with large heli-deck.

[Buster15]

Originally Posted by ORAC

Fingers crossed, the water will still be very cold at this time of year.

Wouldn't he have a life raft.

[Clipped Wings]

Buster,
yes he would but, if he was incapacitated during ejection he would not be able to enter the relative safety of the life raft. Believe me, it is quite challenging under ‘normal’ conditions.