pedroalpha: The one you mention has an entry in Broken Wings.

26.5.71, F6, XS902, 5Sqd, 9 mls SE of Spurn Head, abandoned after engine fire.

What about the one on the 8th September 1970?

Must be good for a thread or two.

Oooops.....quite right:uhoh:

That would have been the RCAF exchange pilot that parted company with XS902 after a re-heat fire about 9m east of Spurn Head.

Well one of your old 74 Sqn charges is currently the only airworthy Lightning F.6 in the world:ok:
XR773/F, then the 'personal' mount of a current well known civilian Hunter display pilot;) is with Mike Beachyhead's ThunderCity operation down at Cape Town International:ok:

27th July 1970, XS930. There's a detailed paragraph written by one of 74's other pilots, of this incident, in Martin Bowmans book on the Lightning.

Thanks Henry - it was an interesting night and the pilot became quite well known to us later. Nice chap.

The main issue was the quite exceptional co-operation with a Lossiemouth Shack that dropped enough flares for us to get down to winching height. Violet picture let-downs were fine but in total darkness we needed help.

GEERAM
Seems your rescue is on some databases, have checked the one I have access to and found the following for that date:

26-5-1971
RAF Lightning XS902/J of 5 Sqn. Crashed into the North Sea nine miles south east of Spurn Head,
15 miles north east of Grimsby, Yorkshire after the pilot ejected due to a reheat fire.
Pilot A. Macay.

If you want to add details of the helo you were in and supporting a/c and times etc I will happily add them to the record.

Good to see so many WIWOLs still active on Pprune. Maybe we could have a section just for Lightning pilots. Afterall we were the best!!

and Ally's No.2 that night was Merv Fowler.

YS

I think you've got your posters mixed up.:uhoh:

Also, IIRC, the pilots surname was MacKay.

And the above post gives a clue to what his 'A' initial stood for as well.;)

Trembling One Groundcrew Mutiny
 

LightningMate:-

Off the main topic I know, but:-

This incident (incidents, as there were two) took place at Valley during an MPC and then on exercise at Luqa, both in 1968.

The Great Groundcrew Mutiny, which title entered our annals with tongue in cheek, centred around a certain officer, who was easily the worst example of his type--not just in "human" terms, but managerially and professionally. This guy was actively hated, and it was because of him that we all refused to join in a squadron booze-up in Malta.

Wing Cmdr. Les Swart, the CO, came into the airman's club and pleaded with us to come along to the party. It was hard to refuse Swart, who was respected, but it was quietly explained to him that no one wanted to have anything to do with the culprit.

Swart understood, wished us well and we had our own party. Our spies elsewhere later let it be known that the said person was hauled over the coals. The Valley incident had been less obtrusive as I dimly remember--various "humourous" signs painted up around the crew rooms, but people got the message all the same.

Much, much, later I had the great pleasure of cutting the offending person dead when I was a civilian and he was introduced to me. Little victory perhaps, but I felt he was paid back for the petty vindictiveness he displayed to people to whom he should have set a better example.

Apart from that----two great tours on the magnificent Lightning!

LFfitt

Can you remember if the aircraft that caught fire on start up at Tengah was written off. {never seen a grow bag run so fast}

Presumably you refer to XS928, which was declared Cat3 after damage caused by ground fire after fuel vented onto the wing in 1970.

It was airlifted by a Belfast back to Warton for new wings to be fitted, and then had a long career and eventually became one of the last Lightnings to fly being one of the 4 used by BAE after RAF service, transferring to Warton on 14/6/88. BAE began a major on it in 1991, but didn’t complete it and instead it was withdrawn from use and used as a spares source.
It still survives, now being the gate guardian at BAE Warton.

It sounds as credible as the story I heard a few days ago of a hangar full of Wellington bombers "Somewhere in England". Were you told this is a pub by any chance?

LFittNI,

Thanks for the info ref 'Tremblers Mutiny'.

I have some recall of the Malta event, now I know what it was. I avoided Valley that year so no recall of happenings at that location.

lm

Oddly enough I had exactly the same conversation with an alleged ex-lightning guy who told the exact same story! I assume we were talking to the same person! My conversation took place in the late eighties in a pub he was running in S Wales, whilst I was serving at RAF Pembrey Sands. He told of spending a few days at sea and was picked up, as he recalls, by an american helo. Having said that, he also mentioned that it was his third ejection and he had the metal plate in his head to prove it which became visible in cold weather!

In (belated!) response to 'newt', there is a WWOL home at this site if you have not already registered.