hawk Emergency landing at RAF Shawbury

[BIGNEWY]

http://bfbs.com/news/emergency-landing-raf-shawbury-64693.html

 

A Hawk jet has been forced to make an emergency landing at RAF Shawbury in north Shropshire after a possible engine malfunction.

 

The aircraft, based at RAF Valley in Anglesey, struck the over-run barrier at the end of the runway with the pilot escaping unharmed.

 

Squadron Leader Jason Murdoch from RAF Shawbury told the Shropshire Star: “A Hawk jet from RAF Valley made an emergency recovery to Shawbury due to a possible engine malfunction. The pilot got out of the aircraft unharmed once it was safely on the ground.”

 

David Howell, 62 of Shrewsbury, told the paper he was by the fence around the airbase and saw the landing happen at about 1.40pm yesterday.

 

“The crash barrier sprung up, you could see it across the field. I thought they were running a test.But then I heard this Hawk coming down the runway, it was going quite fast and you could see it wasn’t going to stop.

 

“It jerked up and came to rest. The next thing you knew the fire service, ambulance and RAF crews were all there. It was a complete surprise.”

 

“It all happened in the space of five or six minutes. I have my pilot’s licence and have had my fair share of incidents and worries but never at that speed. It could have all gone wrong, but I’m glad it all worked out. It was all dealt with very quickly and professionally.”

 

RAF Valley said the pilot was uninjured during the "hard landing" and a Ministry of Defence investigation has been launched.

 

[JaseGill]

Well,

It looks like everything worked as advertised and everyone got out of it alive.

Mr Howell's comments read a bit sensationalised (which Im quite surprised about given its the BFBS website reporting it) "all a surprise", "in the space of five or six minutes".

I doubt it was out of nowhere for Shawbury ATC, or even a surprise as they would have had a fair amount of warning from whoever the Hawk was talking to at the time. The barrier was a standard response in my day for aircraft that may need it in emergency and was thrown up just in case anyway unless the specific type was not barrier cleared (usually too heavy or some other technical/safety reason).

 

It sounds like it could be a possible hydraulics failure maybe bought on by the loss of the engine (no brakes/hot brakes if using manual braking) and makes slowing one down with no airbrake (as its under the jet and fouls the runway - therefore cannot be deployed when the gear is down) a bit of an issue. The fact that it took the barrier and stopped just means everything worked as advertised.

Shawbury has between 4500ft and 6000ft (depending on whether its 05/23 or 18/36) and Valley has between 4200ft and 7500ft of runway (depending on either 01/19, 08/26 or 14/32) all of them plenty to get a serviceable Hawk down.

Still, nice to see a good story about the old T1A after all of the bad press its had of late.

 

Another interesting point is that XX303 is a Navy T1A jet. Or was last time the register was updated, the Navy Hawks are now at Valley too as some may assume its all RAF at Valley.

Edited October 10, 2013 by JaseGill