A Group Captain based at RAF Valley has claimed the downed Hawk was steered at a field and away from built-up areas, which is remarkable for pilots hanging from parachutes. Whereas the aircraft came down exactly where you might expect it to from a right-hand circuit at such time as you'd left it to its own devices... as it was earlier this week.
Why the RAF feel obliged to promulgate this bollocks into the twenty-first century is beyond us, but then PR is foremost amongst its focus in the present day.
Remarkably a fire in the auxiliary power unit, given its location behind the rearmost seat of the cockpit, is actually anticipated to burn through the alloy rods connecting the control surfaces at the tail... they've even a checklist for it. Airliners feature this unit at the tail where it can do altogether less harm, though that's not an option on single-engine jet trainers like this where space is needed for the tail-pipe.
There is however a tradition among pilots to bask in the glory of self-sacrifice of this kind, which in fairness is imposed on them by our technically-ignorant media. Most egregious hereabouts, the crash at Stockport on the approach to Manchester airport when the captain (who survived) apparently steered the stricken aircraft away from a hospital.
For pilots there is a stark choice in the circs between flying into a brick wall or not doing so, but I'd be first to admit it probably needs a memory item to be included in most modern airlines: so paste and copy away:
Forced Landing ....................................... Brick walls to be avoided
The Hawk however is a remarkable Northern success that has served us all one way or another for fifty years. Below a picture of the Argonaut that crashed at Stockport, which was actually a variant of the Douglas DC-4... we've also a tradition here of re-naming foreign-designed aircraft to make it look like they were designed and built in the UK.
Ed. The hangar at the original Speke Airport ~ or at least its corollary on the other side of the original terminal ~ is converted into a gym. If we are unable to deter the Soviets, at least they'll have somewhere to buff their abs.
