O.T. from Afganistan

On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 at 13:40:57 in message
, Paul Sengupta
wrote:

Regarding Farnborough, indeed this was the case. In fact, Neville Duke
was told go up and display the Hunter, including sonic booms, directly
after John Derry's tragic accident. The organisers wanted to divert
attention away from the crash.

Neville Duke was not the first to fly after the crash. A Vampire, I
think, was waiting for take-off clearance and waited there while small
pieces were swept off the runway in front of him before he took off and
continued.

I don't think that diverting attention was the reason for continuing, I
suspect that the reason was to avoid a sudden rush of people leaving.
Quite a lot did leave but others stayed, as I did. I had no choice, we
had come by coach and we had to wait until it was due to leave. My
feeling, I recall, was that they were right to continue in a subdued
fashion.

My recollection is that the DH110 sonic boom came a little while before
we saw the aircraft. It made one pass along the crowd and then curved
away in a large circle until it was at right angles to the runway and
the ground line and heading straight towards it. I understand that John
Derry normally did a rolling pull up at that point (a high load case for
an aircraft). As the nose came up the aircraft flew apart. Engraved in
my mind is the tailplane (stabiliser) breaking in two near the middle
and then being aware that the engines were coming straight toward me.

Preoccupied with their trajectory I realised that they were going right
overhead. They did not tumble but went straight. I then noticed the two
booms and a a part of the centre section falling some way away - perhaps
more than half a mile. They fell almost straight down, twisting as they
went.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a large object
striking the ground just in front of the crowd line and about 100 yards
to my left. I afterwards discovered that that was the forward part of
the fuselage and contained the crew. It was close to the impact of that
that someone clicked his camera and produced that amazing picture. My
father studied it and sent me a marked up copy where you could make out
a pair of goggles and a pair of head phones in mid-air. It must be one
of the most striking and gruesome crash pictures ever taken.

I then stood there and heard small pieces of aircraft falling to the
ground around me.

--
David CL Francis