Spitfire down

[Amused2death]

Just on my twitter feed, Spitfire crash at East Midlands Airport.

Luckily no injuries reported.

Source: Sky News

ETA. BBC link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-20939051

Edited by Amused2death on Monday 7th January 16:54

[ph1l5]

Just heard it on the news

[mcdjl]

ph1l5 said:

Just heard it on the news

Bugger...that explains the fire engines and ambulances racing round and changing their minds earlier. it looked ace a few weeks back when it did some circuits overhead!

[selnic]

Wonder if it is the Rolls Royce spit,as it is based at Donington?

[Eric Mc]

Flypast forums reporting it as G-RRGN, the Rolls Royce PRXIX. It looks like it was a wheels up landing which hopefully hasn't resulted in too much damage to the aircraft or pilot.

[Barry Ashcroft]

Not good

[mrmaggit]

According to East Midlands news, the undercarriage collapsed on landing. Did the pilot forget to lock it down?

[Eric Mc]

No point in speculating.

Undercarriage systems on aircraft of that era were notoriously fickle. More Me109s were written off through undercarriage failures than through any other single cause.

[kazste]

Such a shame heard it take of, man o man did it sound good. Thought it was loud and then it opened up the throttle! Main thing is the pilot is being reported as unhurt hopefully the plane will make a recovery too.

[Barry Ashcroft]

Picture shows it in one piece being pushed of runway, prop missing but damage looks minimal fingers crossed

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9786243/Spi...

[Vieste]

[mrloudly]

Without speculating... Sounds IMHO an in flight problem with precautionary landing at a well resourced airfield, not seen many Spits at E.Mids before...

[davepoth]

Barry Ashcroft said:

Picture shows it in one piece being pushed of runway, prop missing but damage looks minimal fingers crossed

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9786243/Spi...

If the prop is the only thing that properly broke it's a job well done.

[Fonz]

davepoth said:

If the prop is the only thing that properly broke it's a job well done.

Yes, but it’s also the amount of parts that will have to be removed from the A/C, stripped right down and inspected. Also a large number of these will be replaced just because the technical reg’s insist on it. All in all this will be a very costly repair bill indeed.
However the pink mushy bit that some old dear considers irreplaceable has been able to walk away and start filling in the paper work. Actually maybe I should write having, a debrief with whoever they deem responsible for his blushes. Seriously glad everyone’s alright.

[S3_Graham]

Met the 2 guys that look after the aircraft on a few occasions at the air shows. Hope they sort it out ASAP top guys. Let our entire office have a sit inside

[longshot]

mrloudly said:

Without speculating... Sounds IMHO an in flight problem with precautionary landing at a well resourced airfield, not seen many Spits at E.Mids before...

It believe it lives at E.Mid.
A visit I was offered to see it was there and I've seen it in a hangar there too.

It could have been an inflight problem but I sat in the garden listening to it this afternoon and he was putting it through it's paces and then I heard him head off towards the airport.
Engine wise, everything sounded A1.

[Eric Mc]

mrmaggit said:

According to East Midlands news, the undercarriage collapsed on landing. Did the pilot forget to lock it down?

Sadly, I've heard from someone who believes you may not be wide of the mark.

[Simpo Two]

Is 'locking down' a seperate action? Thought it was just UP or DOWN.

[eharding]

Oddly enough, I was re-watching the BBC Operation Crossbow documentary on the iPlayer last night, which had some footage of gear-up landing by a PR variant Spitfire. Certainly not a risk-free activity, it did look as though it was going to tip over a couple of times, and sadly we've seen a fairly recent fatality in a Spitfire which flipped over on landing - so if it ended without injury, that's the main thing.

As for whether the gear was selected down or not - well, generally those who are in a position to be able to make that selection are less likely to point an accusing finger - and more likely to offer a silent prayer that they don't screw up themselves - than those who aren't. Having experienced a (fixed) gear collapse myself, the transition from everything being fine, to everything going to ratst is an extremely rapid and unpleasant experience.

[longshot]

Simpo Two said:

Is 'locking down' a seperate action? Thought it was just UP or DOWN.

I was sure that the landing gear itself performed this as it lowered but hey, I've been wrong before. Now that's something you don't hear very often on PH.