ATAC Hunter F58 N337AX Crash - 20 Jun 2022
 

https://t.co/yXX9hB4d2b. Looks like N344AX circled the crash site for some time and is now RTB. FLYTRON10 and CPS11 are also in the area as well. https://t.co/qWRlLJ85Il" / Twitter

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FSxRe-qW...jpg&name=large

Message to GIANT KILLER confirming crash of ATAC Hunter F58 N337AX - pilot ejected - picked up by fishing vessel - believed to have a broken back.

FAA statement said he was rescued by the coast guard

A single-engine Hawker crashed into the Atlantic Ocean about 40 miles southeast of Wilmington International Airport in North Carolina around 5:15 p.m. local time today. Only the pilot was on board and was rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. The NTSB will be in charge of the investigation and will provide additional updates.

After investigators verify the aircraft registration number at the scene, the FAA will release it (usually on the next business day) on this web page. You can look up the aircraft by its registration number on this web page.

only if you’ve got FAA Prime, otherwise, it’s standard 3-5 day delivery.

Pleased to see that the pilot survived.
Sorry to hear about the back injury.

If they need to, how do they get the pilot out through that little yellow hole? :E

How many Hunters left? This is the second I'm aware of over the last few years.

I believe there are circa Qty 17 mk58s and Qty One T68 with ATAC on lease from Lortie after this recent loss.

This is now the 5th Hunter ATAC have lost since 2012.

May 2012 - Crashed into sea off the coast of California
Oct 2014 - Crashed into sea off the coast of California
Aug 2017 - Crashed into sea off the coast of California
Dec 2018 - Crashed into sea of Sand Island, Honolulu

How is this happening? This has got to be one of the most reliable engines ever made.

Not really; the Avon 200 series had problems all through its service life. I have vivid memories of watching my wingman eject from a Hunter 9 at Leconfield after his engine quit, from what turned out (much later) to have been a compressor blade fatigue failure.

As a fighter engine, the overhaul life was only 400 hours - only about half the engines reached that, many being pulled early - true, many as a result of FOD problems rather than intrinsic engine faults.

What makes you assume all these crashes are related to the engine?

Edit to above posted info....

The Hunter loss in 2014 wasn't into the sea, its was on finals back to NAS Point Mugu airfield, and crashed into farmland.
The 2012 loss was similar, crashed on finals to NAS Point Mugu.

Looks like the tanks are a bit longer than standard 230/100gals.
Still one of the best looking jets though..

Agree, a very graceful looking fast jet.

The inboard tanks appear to be the standard 230-gall type. Outboards are certainly longer than the 100-gall, could be the 150-gallon developed for the Swiss AF.

With whom the aircraft in question served originally.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....49d32f06e0.jpg

Hawker Hunter F58 - Switzerland - Air Force | Aviation Photo #0941332 | Airliners.net

There are a pair based in Japan N321 & N322 been there for a while working the US Navy(?)
seem to do some long transits to activity area over water from a base near Tokyo.

Cdr

a certain "very senior airship" won an AFC for nursing a very sick Avon back to base in the sixties.

Is the Hunter the only vintage Jet still in service?

I think Martin Baker's Meteor(s?) are a good candidate for that.

NASA are still operating 3 RB-57s.

NASA's B-57s originally had FY1953 serials (as B-57B/RB-57D), so a few years newer than the M-B Meteors.

They were given FY1963 serials when converted to RB-57F standard (later redesignated WB-57F) for NASA, and the TF33 (JT3D) engines that they now fly with are probably around 10 years newer than the Meteors' Derwents.

Most of the F-58 ex-Swiss Hunters were new build between 1958 and 1960, which some later refurbished ex-RAF etc airframes later in the 60's and even into the 70's.

Pretty much the same age as many of the USAF KC-135's still in service, and the active B-52's are all 1960-1962, so not much younger.

I understood that DERA had been given one to run without oil. I had been told that it ran for weeks not hours. Of course I am always easily wound up.

Is the Hunter especially difficult to eject from? I seem to recall a Hunter with electrical issues going down over an estuary some years ago in Wales (?). Pilot also suffered back injuries.

My back surgeon said that this was very common in pilots who bang out. He said he got to see most of them.

This Hunter probably has a Martin Baker Mk 4 seat in it (although some single seaters had earlier seats), and this seat has a 80 ft/sec gun which is at the limit for damaging your back (rocket seats have 60 ft/sec guns). When you bang out there is a probability that your spine will not be straight as it s difficult to be sure that you are sitting correctly. If your spine is straight all the vertebra will be parallel and you should escape any injury. However, if your back is slightly bent then the vertebra are likely to collide with each other and fracture - depending on the bend this will be the front or the back of the vertebra bones that will fracture, and in the day you might expect several weeks flat on your back to allow the vertebra to re knit..

The pilot used to be a regular poster on here some years back, and it was also his second ejection as well, having had to eject from a Lightning some years earlier during his RAF service days.
The ejection from the Hunter though ended his fast jet flying days as a TP with BAe.

Mrs WB627 was a physiotherapist, one of her patients a very tall gentleman 6'2" I believe, was a Lightning ejectee and was 2" shorter when he landed, hence the need for a phiso in later life.

All single-seat Hunters were fitted with Mk2 or Mk3 seats, rated at 90kts/ground level. The 2-seaters all had the Mk4 seat, with the same ejection envelope. One major difference is the Mk4 uses a combined harness, where on the earlier seats there were separate harnesses for the parachute and the seat. Yes, all had the 80ft/sec cartridge gun, which is pretty much on the limit of what the human frame will tolerate, resulting in a spinal injury rate of around 30% for such seats. Not as bad as it sounds, as the vast majority of people have a full recovery and most regain their ejection seat rated medical category. Rocket seats are kinder to the body, not just because the gun has a lower velocity, but mainly because the rate at which the G is applied is significantly lower.

I assume you're referring to vertical stature. In any case, 2" is quite a hit.

Martin-Baker refitted its Meteors with Mk10 rocket seats rather than keeping the old 'gunpowder' seats, so I'm sure that it would be feasible to refit Hunters similarly. But at a cost...

He was short in the leg and long in the trunk/neck, compressed all the disks in his spine.

Not to be wished for by anyone, those take decades to recover. Am astonished he was still able to fly after that.