Tornado F3 Incident / Year Unknown
 

Good afternoon,

I was reminded today of an incident involving a Tornado F3 at Warton. No idea of the year, but do remember vague details. Aircraft departing on 26 for some reason decided to drop both his 2250 litre tanks on the 08 threshold. The tanks then bounce along the ground and explode. The tanks stopping before setting light to a caravan park on the 08 approach. Can anyone remember this incident, and if so recall any details?

Many thanks

EGNH

Best speak with Flight Ops at Warton

Oh no, not switch pigs with the gear up and release buttons?
Got to love cockpit ergonomics.
It would never happen again...........

1987 :ooh:

Not sure about a F3 but there was a Saudi IDS (CT10) in the mid-90s did this too. Sounded like a hangar door falling off and the runway had to be resurfaced afterwards. Those in the caravan park short of the 08 threshold claimed it was done on purpose to scare them away...

It wouldn't be the old Missile Management System (MMS) gag would it? Where the unguarded Selective Jettison in the rear cockpit is next to the "success' button for overiding a failed command channel? :8

Seem to remember this happening at RAF Leeming?

LJ

Nah the Leeming one was fat fingers in the Emergency Jettison, I was 10 secs behind. Bloody funny CVR after the warload dropped off and the guy carrying out the visual inspection said "...what configuration did you take off in?" "*^%# #$#%^"

Leeming had two incidents, the one as Schnowzer describes, but also one a few years later as alluded to by LJ in which the nav pressed the SJ button rather than Success.

Not just the F3s. To my memory there have been 3 inadvertent 'tank drops' on the GR force....

- XV(R) Sqn (OCU) staff nav jettisoned the tanks at Lossie (went to close the SJ flap but accidentally hit the button before the stude pilot had put the MASS to standby?)

- Tanks jettisoned on a weapons range (Deci?) by a non-aircrew passenger (rumour at the time was that the practice weapon was going to be 'committed' by the pax in the back seat but the 'lift the flap and press and hold the red button' was mis-interpreted). Pilot was a former XV(R) Sqn staff pilot....

- XIII Sqn live weapons at Garvie - lunchtime (aircrew) turnarounds at a (non Tornado) Scottish base (Machrihanish?) with a standard training sortie in the afternoon (so all live weapons had to be expended). Crew left with 1 live bomb (IIRC the range was closed prior to the end of the slot due to wind direction etc) so wpn had to be jettisoned from the aircraft 'safe'. Unfortunately nav selected 'inboard pylon' rather than 'shoulder' pylon and successfully SJ'd a large tank instead. Re-attack more successful! Photos of the asymmetric aircraft in one of XIII Sqns albums (early 90's). Nav went on to be a staff nav on XV(R) Sqn.

Of course I've never, ever made a switch pigs.....;)

EAP86, might have been an IDS, time changes what you think you remember. All the other details correct I'm pretty sure. It was in the local gazette, might give them a pester if nothing turns up here.

At Boscombe Down in the late '80s 2 x 2250l tanks dropped off an F3 shortly after unstick. There was no fire when they hit the ground but monstrous contamination of the runway surface. We managed to get the aircraft shut down before the ADR over-wrote the incident. The cause was the EJ button inadvertently being pushed by the pilot as he selected the landing gear up (probably with the knuckle of his index finger). The result was a modification which set the front cockpit jettison buttons deeper into the panel; the standard of the aircraft to which this happened had buttons that were flush with the panel surface.

Well the event at Warton was a two ship formation for a Saudi GR1 delivery and I saw it first hand. BAe and the MOD spent a small fortune investigating the issue blaming everything from EMC issues to faulty wiring but it came down to finger trouble and designed in ergonomics with the EJ button, which everyone suspected from the off.

There has been other events all with the same result and red faces all round. If my member is correct how is the Hawk UC raised, is it by a button or a UC lever?

I will get my coat...