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Scarborough Red Arrows pilot 'failed to put wheels down'
A SENIOR Red Arrows pilot from Scarborough crashed his £5 million Hawk jet after failing to put the wheels down to land, an unpublished RAF Board of Inquiry report has concluded.
The Hawk plane crashed on landing at RAF Cranwell, Lincs, in August last year, with the pilot and co-pilot understood to have suffered serious ejection injuries. The pilot was reported to have been unable to fly for nine months afterwards.
The Ministry of Defence said its unpublished Board of Inquiry report found the pilot – understood to be the Red Arrows' Wing Commander David Firth-Wigglesworth – switched authority to lower the wheels to the rear cockpit, meaning the landing gear did not respond and the plane landed without wheels.
Wg Cmdr Firth-Wigglesworth's father Colin Wigglesworth, of Riggs Head, Scarborough, spoke to the Evening News after the crash, but he declined to comment when approached yesterday.
His son's jet was arriving at RAF Cranwell, where Prince William learnt to fly, on completion of its airtest from RAF Shawbury in Shropshire and was due to be painted in the colours of the world-famous Red Arrows aerobatic display team.
But Wg Cmdr Firth-Wigglesworth and his co-pilot ejected, leaving the 5 million runaway plane to be written off as it skidded off the runway and across a car park, destroying a crew building and three cars before smashing into the air traffic control building.
Read the full story in Tuesday's Evening News
The RAF has pledged to act on every point.
An RAF source said: “Red Arrows Boards of Inquiry are not normally made public, to ensure the public do not see them in a bad light.”
But MoD spokesman Paul Leat confirmed: “The BOI findings have not been released publicly, but the BOI found the accident was caused by the control mechanism which deploys the undercarriage being diverted to the rear cockpit.
“Authority for the lading gear can be diverted between the front and rear cockpits and they were testing the controls for both.
“The pilot was in the front so when he went to land, he would have needed to divert the controls to the front cockpit – but that had not happened, so the landing gear did not reply.
“There were also other minor contributory factors identified and the BOI made 29 recommendations which have all been taken forward by the chain of command.
“No action has been taken against the crew.”
Describing the crash, an RAF source said: “The Hawk ploughed through the car park, flattening one building and wiping out several cars.
“A friend of mine had just left the building hit by the Hawk. If he hadn’t left when he did, he wouldn’t be here now.”
An eyewitness added: “The aircraft lost control and swerved to the right, with two loud bangs following as the aircrew ejected.”
RAF Cranwell is the RAF’s officer training headquarters and home of the world’s oldest air force college. The Red Arrows aerobatic team is based at nearby RAF Scampton.
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Weather for Scarborough
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North east
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Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: North east
