USN F-18 crashes near RAF RAF Lakenheath

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-34593948

Original post

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8 years 7 months

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Yikes. Hopefully they bailed in time.

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24 years 2 months

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Yikes. Hopefully they bailed in time.

Sadly not, perhaps you should have clicked the link.:(

RIP.

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15 years 9 months

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RIP Blue skies and condolences to those bereaved.

In the report http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-34593948 there is a strange/interesting comment/quote, re quoted here -

"A witness to the US jet crash in Redmere has said she wanted to thank the family of the dead pilot, and he was a "great pilot"."

It isn't clear whether the person quoted was thanking the family of the dead pilot for his/her life, his/her death or avoiding (if he/she had any control of the circumstances of crashing) homes.

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Very sad.
Condolences to the family of the pilot.

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Sadly not, perhaps you should have clicked the link.:(

RIP.


I did but my eyes skipped the first line, or maybe it's been updated since? It was last modified 22 minutes ago, I posted 3 hours ago.

So why didn't/couldn't he eject?

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Seems he did eject

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8 years 7 months

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Wow, that's pretty strange then.

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In the updated report here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-34593948 there seem to more ambiguities and possibly a clarification to one I raised in my post above ( http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?136774-USN-F-18-crashes-near-RAF-RAF-Lakenheath&p=2266659#post2266659 )

"A witness to the crash, Karen Miles-Holdaway, from Redmere, said she thought the pilot did very well to avoid any houses."

"The jet came down on farmland in Cambridgeshire, with the alarm raised at 10:30 BST."

"Miramar, base of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, said in a statement: "A third Marine aircraft wing FA-18/C Hornet belonging to Marine Attack Fighter Squadron 232 stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar crashed in the vicinity of RAF Lakenheath at approximately 05:30am."

If in the alarm was raised at 10:30 BST I presume the 05:30 am implies EST which does not fit with the paragraph it is included in as time in San Diego where Miramar the base of Marine Attack Fighter Squadron 232 should be 8 hours behind BST.

Maybe someone reporting confused Miramar in Florida (EST) with Miramar in San Diego (PST).

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Wow, that's pretty strange then.

Coincidentally it has been discussed if the increasingly sophisticated (and heavy) helmets worn by combat pilots pose a significant risk in ejections, particularly if the pilot is lightly built.

Moggy

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Coincidentally it has been discussed if the increasingly sophisticated (and heavy) helmets worn by combat pilots pose a significant risk in ejections, particularly if the pilot is lightly built.

Moggy


A simple solution would be to make the HMCS aspect of the helmet quick release and release it prior to ejection.

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Thanks Moggy C

Coincidentally it has been discussed if the increasingly sophisticated (and heavy) helmets worn by combat pilots pose a significant risk in ejections, particularly if the pilot is lightly built.

Moggy

If it is the heavy helmet it may have possibly caused what is known in Neuro (Head including brain trauma) as a Contracoup injury http://www.brainandspinalcord.org/traumatic-brain-injury-types/coup-contracoup-injury/index.html

Racing motor cyclists can suffer these same injuries.

Usually though these injuries take a period in hospital (sometimes very long) before the person either recovers or succumbs to injuries. In this case the pilot was declared dead quite soon after the crash.

We may never know all the facts since this is a military and sensitive incident

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We don't really even know if it is the helmet yet, so far it's just supposition. There are a number of other things that can go wrong during an ejection at high speed, anything from hitting the canopy to hitting a bird.

Are the Cs even fitted with HMCS?

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Cause #1 is an ejection out of the escape envelop, which usually is the consequence of a late ejection.

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Ejection is always fraught with dangers. Although a seat ejects in an automated sequence (upon pulling the handle) what the a/c is doing at that moment can disrupt it's safe passage. Also the reaction and position of the crew can effect the end result.
I remember a Buccaneer Nav breaking his own sternum, with his jaw. Even though it is a short time (0.6 sec from pulling handle to leaving a/c), he had pulled and thought nothing had happened. He looked down to check the handle (seat-pan) had been correctly pulled and it went off... He was lucky to survive.
MB do work to high standards. When a seat is used in anger it is returned and is thoroughly inspected and analysed if it had worked correctly and if there could be any useful improvements.

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MB aren't doing a terribly good job on the F-35 seat by all accounts.

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MB aren't doing a terribly good job on the F-35 seat by all accounts.

What utter rubbish!
MB designed the seat to the specs provideded by LM, an issue has since been discovered with lightweight pilots (because of the DOD's insistence that everyone from Tinkerbell to BigFoot should be able to fly it!), MB and LM are now working on a solution. That does not equate to MB not 'doing a terribly good job on the F-35 seat...'!

-Dazza

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We don't really even know if it is the helmet yet, so far it's just supposition.

Not even supposition. I would never attempt to double guess the outcome of an investigation. It was merely a possibility - one amongst many.

Apologies if it read otherwise

Blue Skies Major Sareen.

Moggy

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Do we know why the rest of the squadron didn't land in the same airport? I read they were re-routed in Scotland. Does it means that it was an in-flight failure deemed minor that didn't seem urgent to be de-routed with his wingman?

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Maybe for the same reason that, generally, air displays do not carry on after the crash of a displaying aircraft - because the fire crews and tenders are all off base and unable to cover for another incident?

I too was confused about the times given by the media. Would a statement from the base about incident that had just occurred have been given in anything other than the time local to that incident? Apparently so. Nowhere has it been said that the crash occurred just after take off, but the indications are all there for it either to have happened then or because it had to return for some reason. I am sure I saw somewhere that the six aircraft had been unable to meet with a tanker, yet I cannot find any trace of that now.