2 Aircraft down near Abingdon
 

An aircraft and glider have both crashed in Oxfordshire, a fire service spokeswoman has confirmed.
Emergency crews were called at 1417 BST to the incident between Drayton and Sutton Courtenay, near Abingdon.
The spokeswoman could not confirm if the plane had been towing the glider but both had "come down".
Five fire engines and a number of officers were in attendance along with ambulance and police teams, the spokeswoman added.



BBC

Sky reporting two killed, sad.

Sounds almost certain to be a mid-air :(. Condolences to all involved.

BBC News 24 reporting 2 RAF personnel in aircraft colliding with civilian glider

Four months ago:- BBC NEWS | UK | Wales | Four die in mid-air plane crash

Given the reports of a loud bang, it sounds like a low level collision. Any data on how high they were?

High enough for the glider pilot to use his / her parachute. Was the bang heard by the witness the collision or something hitting the ground? We have no idea.

RAF/MoD reported on BBCi as saying it was a Tutor aircraft with two RAF personnel on board.

"The RAF personnel had been in a Tutor single-engine training craft when it collided with a civilian glider, the Ministry of Defence said."

Don't RAF Tutors fly with parachutes too?
Maybe the glider pilot 'saw it coming' . . .

does anyone know which ATC sqd was flying today? (if you could PM rather than post if you think its more appropriate).

thanks

RAF Benson according to the Beeb (for the Tutor base) - might be OUAS.
6 Air Experience Flight - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

According to a witness quoted in the Oxford Mail

" the engine of the glider stopped and then it came down and someone parachuted out"

Eye witness statement
 

"...the engine of the glider stopped"

That statement sums up ground level eye witnesses. You just don't know whether to laugh or cry.

A truely horrible weekend for GA.

I'm no expert, but aren't there such things as "powered gliders"? I'm quite happy to be put right by someone in the know about these things.

An acquaintance who started his working life with Pickfords Heavy Haulage was sent on his first job (as an assessor) to plan the move of a glider engine.

(the equivalent of being sent to the stores for a long stand)

flyingwelshman,
Was one of my cadets. Check your pms.
Chinchilla.

Indeed, one of my flying friends has one, a Pipistrel Sinus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLARM

Flarm is widely used in Switzerland.

Essentially it is a peer to peer collision avoidance system which is Open Source, it is simply a GPS attached to a small cheap computer and a low power radio.

The computer reads the GPS and broadcasts the a/c track & position on a public frequency.

The computer also listens out for radio messages from other aircraft and computes collision risk and displays any risk by way of a series of leds and buzzer.

The Flarm box has built in antennas, all it needs is a power supply, it is light and small enough to velcro on top of the panel.

It costs 600 swissies - approx £350

I went looking for images on Google to answer that question, and found one of Prince William & his instructor getting into a Tutor apparently both wearing parachutes so it seems that yes, they do.

Photo from Getty Images - News, photos, topics, and quotes

Based on a detailed conversation with the pilot of a glider who witnessed the crash, 4000 ish feet, most likely it was the ground impact that was heard....

A sad day indeed...