Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

Apologies if this has been posted previously http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwNuOkdFKXY

Seems the pilot Dave Stock was unable to initiate ejection following an onboard fire and hydraulic failure.

Sad news indeed.

Rob.

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

I don't think its been on RCU here Rob, but a tragic accident none the less.

It really is a worse case scenario when you have to get out in a hurry and the canopy release won't allow the seat to fire.

It's happened before, in the RAF in the '60s with, ironically, a young South African pilot, I believe it was a double flameout. Unable to eject because the canopy didn't fire, he force landed the thing, gear up, quite successfully in a field (with Vref of 160 k !) but then collided with a tree and the impact caused the canopy to fire and he was ejected at low speed with fatal results.

It is such a tragic event for Thunder City who, to date, have run a flawless amd highly professional operation with an exceptionally good safety record, something the Lightning was not exactly renowned for in RAF service.

Regards,

David Gladwin.

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

If anyone is interested this is the Interim report on the crash from the South African CAA.

http://www.caa.co.za/resource%20cent...009/ZU-BEX.pdf

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

I knew about this tragic loss via my friend Dave Fox, who knew the pilot and who sent me these images just before the crash.

Study the rear section carefully - made my blood run cold.

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

Now that is one of those stories that makes you think that when your time is up . . . it is really up . . . and there's not much you can do about it.

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

After reading the report I don't understand why did they restart and flew the aircraft without a thorought inspection when they knew there was clearly a trouble???

just did a small search, the pics are fake.

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

Hi Florent,

I think we should be mindful that this is an Interim Report (from which initial reccomendations for action have been made) that forms a summary of known events without going into any real depth. No doubt the part you refer to will be thoroughly investigated and the detailed picture emerge.

Many RAF Lightnings were lost due to in-flight fires in the rear fuse causing hyd system and T/P system failures...if there are any ex-Lightning techs on here they may chip in and explain in more detail.

Cheers,

Dick
England

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

As Dave Gladwin said the Thunder City guys are very professional in their maintenance of the aircraft so the fact that they, on the face of it, let the aircraft to fly when it was faulty seems very strange. As I know very little about full size maintenance procedures I am not going to comment.

Suffice to say it was a tragic accident, with the death of a pilot and another classic british aircraft gone.

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

Rider 60

We really wish those pictures were fake.

We lost a great aviator and friend. His picture is attached.

A little respect is all we ask.

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

The best way to honnor his memmory is not to promote sensationnal pics...

here's a better way

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSLqq...eature=related

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

A very tragic loss of a great pilot. I understand he remained calm and highly professional even after the failure of the ejection system.

I still plan to one day make it out to fly at Thunder City.....

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

The photos here are by no means published for sensational reasons, hopefully even we can learn something from them. I just have one to add to back up those already shown, taken on the t/o roll of the last flight.

The Lightning does hold the world record for the fastest open cockpit flight when one was lost at supersonic speed.

Rob.

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

My condolences to family and friends on the tragic loss of life.In the eighties as a crew chief on f4 Phantoms,we had occasion to have loss an phantom and the aircrew with it.I must admit,i also assisted the assigned crew chief of the aircraft in flight preparation.The day seemed all normal until the acft was late in returning.We then got word that the acft was lost in an uncontrollable flat spin.I felt perfectly horrid at hearing the news,wondering."what did i miss in my duties and above to ensure a safe acft" This thiught haunted me until i read the investigation report that stated the left outer wing panel fractured in half during a high-g turn resulting in a flat spin.Metal fatigue of that spar was the culprit that resulted in mod kits to enforce the areas of that spar section.A wise man once said that acft are rivets.clamps,nuts and bolts etc all flying in close formation.My heart goes out to the ground techs as well.Lets wait till the report is published. I also must say that i sometimes crnge at some of the rc jet flying that goes on.Very exciting to have a high speed machine zipping close to the crowed and all.keep in mind these also are glue joints,screws,laminated components etc,and i have not seen anyone do any sort of acft inspection after such flying.none.We all do the best we can but machines do have an unknown factor that must be respected.Yes rc models are a form of machine controlled by radio link.Thank you.

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

I don't know if the pictures are fakes - they came from a good source close to Dave Stock and were definatley not intended to sensationalise the death of another human being. The death of someone like this and the destruction of a classic, iconic jet always leaves us asking how? I just hoped to facilitate this a little.

There is a page on Facebook dedicated to Dave on this link - [link]http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=184999121499&ref=mf[/link] Some of us have already paid our respects and it would be nice if you could all do the same.

Jeff

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

The pictures are not fake. The CAA report basically says it all. Dave was an excelent test pilot and much admired by everyone. I often watched them fly overhead and marvel at the spectacle of that beast of a plane. The airfield at Overberg is well known to me and I know many of the people since I operated UAV's from the very same runway and we fly our R/C jets there often by invitation. It is a world class flight test centre, immediately adjacent to our missile testing range and well equiped to handle any situation.
The runup in full afterburner probably was not a good idea given the history of this airframe and was done to impress VIP,s attending a wine auction.

An absolute tragic loss for us. Owner Mike Beachyhead is also a modeller and has spent a fortune on this passion to preserve these jets when no-one else could.
I hope they make it through this.
Andre

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

And it certainly looks as if there was significant fuel venting from the rear fuselage and the ventral tank. Fuel leaks resulting in reheat fires were, I believe, the single greatest cause of Lightning losses in RAF service.

Colin Wilcox is ex Lightnings and may care to comment.

Regards, David Gladwin.

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

Maybe this tragedy could have been avoided if the ejection seat was working, emergency devices should always be the last and safest chance to escape.

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

As Dave G has said, several Lightnings were lost to fuel leaks. However, they did work on the problem over the years, and one of the fixes was to drill more drain holes! If the leak was from inside the airframe there was a tendency for fuel to collect on the bottom fuselage under the no 1 engine. As there was little room between the engine and the skin, the fuel was close to the engine and got hot. I believe that the early control rods to the Hobson Unit ( the tailplane hydraulic control unit) burnt through very quickly, and this caused the tailplane to run nose up - pitching the aircraft nose down. These rods were reputed to have been replaced by titanium rods which lasted several seconds longer - long enough to bang out.
The ejection seat was prevented from firing until an interupter had been removed by the canopy blowing off - if you look at a Lightning canopy you will see a large metal former in the middle. If you hit this on the way out you were squashed - hence the need to get rid of the canopy first. The canopy had to go before the seat would fire.
The incident referred to above was caused by one of the 2 canopy locks (shoot bolts that hold the front of the canopy onto the windscreen arch) breaking and remaining in situ. During the landing roll the canopy came off, due to the shaking, and allowed the seat to fire.

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

Thanks Colin,

The accident I referred to with similarities to the TC event was in 1966 when F/O Derek Law (actually a Rhodesian) of 56 Sqn lost his life in a F3 (XR721) Terribly sad. .He did everything right and fate abandoned him, Sod's law.
The canopy problem and the story of Lightning Fire syndrome is well covered in the book "EE Lightning" by Martin Bowman.

Regards, David G.

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

It's sad events like this that remind you why military flying is a hazardous job. Even when you do everything right, things can still go wrong. Sad to lose an impressive airplane, but even moreso to lose a pilot, someone's family member, and many people's friend.

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

Ejection seats are wonderful things but usually rely on a successful chain of events, without redundancy, to function properly. A failure at any point can doom the sequence. I lost an A-7 squadron mate when his seat failed to eject following a flameout on extended final. Investigation revealed that a cable with a swaged ball on the end was positioned next to and not in the slot that would have allowed it to initiate the ejection sequence. Subsequent inspection of the fleet found 25% of the seats to be similarly installed, that is, one fourth of the ejection seats we were flying with were not functional.

At least the A-7, and I think many of the modern fighters, have canopy penetrators on top of the ejection seat that will allow them to eject through the canopy if it does not fire.

I'm very sorry to hear of this loss and the unfortunate circumstances.

Craig

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

I share Craig's sentiments.........as well, for the record Craig was an A-10 instructor of mine for A-10 RTU at DM (back in the stone ages).

I just "threw a nickle on the grass" for Mr. Dave Stock. Tailwinds for your last flight West Sir............

Cheers,
Mike Warren

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

It's always tragic when a pilot is lost, especially at a show. Having maintained an F-86 for 5 years, I would always say a prayer for a safe return when the pilot, Ed Shipley, departed for a show. We had some "events" of course. That happens. But we handled them and the plane was a good machine. I didn't like to attend airshows with Ed. When he asked, I just answered that I didn't want to be around when someone died. After much persuasion, I agreed to go to the shows for "on site" support. We did Niagara Falls in August '07, I believe, and I met some other performers. We were part of "The Heritage Flight" group and flew with the F-15 Strike Eagle, F-22 and others.

Well, the second show I attended was Oceana NAS a few weeks later. I would drive to the shows since I brought along spares and tools. I arrived about noon on Friday and about an hour later, I was changing a brake on the ramp when I notice a huge black cloud of smoke off the end of the runway. I thought at first it was the Pyro crew testing until I looked up and saw only 4 of 5 SNJ's of the Sky Typers. They were parked right next to us so I got to meet a couple of their ground crew. All in all a sobering day. There was a "Missing Man" tribute that weekend and the next at Brunswick NAS in Maine.

That was the last show we did and Ed sold the plane. It was an experience and one of the high points in my aviation maintenance career. We never knew what Ed was up to. One day we were prepping the F-86 for launch when he showed up with Gen. Chuck Yeager in his car. I learned alot about the F-86 in that hour or so I got to talk with him.

Enough rambling.

Dave, God Speed.

Typhoon Tracker VW-1 NAS Guam

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

Dave asked the ATC at the end to tell his family he loved them. I was not present at the show that day but reliable reports indicate the canopy did not detach for the 3 attempts he made at ejecting. He appeard to fly as slow as possible when presumably the aircraft stalled and spiraled down. The picture of the tailpipe fire indicates quite a bit of right rudder and the left stap pivot seems to be glowing red hot right into the root of the stab. The comments from the CAA about QC at TC is of significance to those familiar to the operation.

RE: Tragic loss of Lightning.
 

My deepest simpathies go out to the family and friends. God bless and gods speed.:(