I hate it when that happens.
Posted on 04/18/2008 6:37:23 PM PDT by Dundee
THIS "shredded" and incapacitated F-111 soared across southeast Queensland homes before a spectacular emergency landing at Amberley Air Base.
The jet was flying at 900m on a test bombing raid at Evans Head, northern NSW, when a pelican struck the fibreglass nose and was sucked into an engine...
The nation's air combat chief, Air Commodore Neil Hart, said the jet's predicament and "precautionary emergency landing" was not serious enough to alert the public...
"One engine was working fine, while the other was at reduced power."
He described the circumstances of the incident, which happened between 10am and noon, as near freakish. "It's a surprise thing at 3000ft to have a bird strike," he said.
"It's certainly not the way we want to operate all the time. The boys did a great job in getting it home."
Repairs to the F-111 – one of 21 active jets – are expected to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Initially the pelican bounced off the nose before being sucked into an engine.
Its impact smashed the plane's ray-dome before causing an immediate engine failure.
The damaged aircraft is expected to be flying again within a month. The F-111 fleet, built in 1974, will be retired in 2010 when an expanded fleet of new Super Hornets is introduced.
At the time of the incident the F-111 was cruising at more than 550km/h. The Air Chief played down fears the flight path endangered homes across the region, though he conceded there were homes in the flight path.
The pilot and air combat officer in the plane were both "reasonably experienced" flight lieutenants, he said...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
So that is shattered fiberglass fibers? Thanks.
Amazing that it stayed attached. Big chunks of of "ray dome" may not have been as easily digested by the engines as the high flying pelican.
The bird came through the windshield and what was left landed in the instructor's lap.
The student was under the hood so he could not see out and had to rely on his instruments. He hears an explosion, sees buzzard guts coming around the front seat and thinks, “Explosion! Instructor is dead! 500 feet above ground level at 350 kts! I'm getting out of here!” So, he ejected.
The Instructor pilot is in the front seat, dead buzzard in his lap, mouth full of feathers, windshield gone, 350 kts of wind buffeting him and then he hears/feels the student in the back seat eject. He thinks, “The stud has ejected. He must know something I don't know. I can't see anything and I'm at 500 feet AGL and 350 kts. I'm outta here! So he ejects.
At the accident investigation both pilots were asked why they ejected from a flyable aircraft. The student explained his reasoning and the accident board said, “That makes sense.”
The Instructor explained his reasoning and the accident board said, “That makes sense.”
Moral of the story? Hitting a big bird at low level and high speed can ruin your whole day AND a good aircraft!
Yes it is a swing wing,but it is manual not computer controled.Pilot had to manually adjust wing sweep with speed.Great jet but was ahead of its time.
Many years ago, in the mid 80s, I saw a swing wing bird doing touch and goes at Wichita. Was this a F-111 or a B-1 ?
Ha! That’s nothing like the experience I had on a TWA flight out of Lambert Field in St. Louis. I used one of my valuable upgrade coupons to get into first class. As we were climbing out, the cabin filled with the unmistakable stench of the mysterious blue lavatory fluid. The damn lav overflowed and covered the entire first class cabin floor, including whatever you had stowed under the seat in front of you, with Lord knows what. We made an emergency landing at the KC airport, which was closed for the evening, and we spent about 3 hours waiting for the maintenance team to pull up the carpet and clean the aircraft. This was back when TWA was in serious distress, so there was no special compensation, either. I think that was the last time I flew TWA.
I hate it when that happens.
Back then it could have been either one. B1 would have been bigger, much bigger.
Cant say,but the B1 is large,the 111 is about maybe twice the size of an F4 if that helps.
F-14 is also swing-wing.
This was a longer wing military jet. Not an F-14.
Also look at the cockpit area.The F111 was the only US aircraft that had an ejection capsule.The pilots sat side by side and the whole cockpit area was blasted frome the fuselage,and floated down like a space capsule.Had floatation bags for water landing,even the control stick could be used as a bilge pump.
Yikes! There are times you just wish you could have a parachute with you!
You can't put any other useful gizmos in there because they'll block the radar signals.
The rolled hay is traumatized fiberglass.
Yeah but there is no way an F-14 and an F-111 can be confused. F-111 and B-1? Maybe. From a distance.
There were reasons pilots didnt want to eject out of the 111.They had airbags under the capsule,but it was a hard landing.
The first time I saw a F-111 take off with full after burners, I was in amazed, all I could say was damn!!!! Once those wings came all the way back the damn thing turned into a rocket ship.
I didn’t know there were any F111’s still flying.
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