ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 58230
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| Date: | Friday 17 April 1964 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Hawker Hunter FGA.9 |
| Owner/operator: | 43 (China-British) Sqn RAF |
| Registration: | XG136 |
| MSN: | S4/U/3372 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Rusais, Abyan, 120 miles ENE of Khormaksar, Aden -
 Yemen
|
| Phase: | Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.) |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | Khormaksar AB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Flew into the ground Rusais, Abyan, Aden (now Yemen). Pilot did not eject, and was killed
This is an account of the accident written by John Batty, who was flying number 2 to Flying Officer Martin Herring in a four-ship practice ground attack formation.
“The briefing was for four of us, with Flying Officer Martin Herring in XG136 in the lead, Flt Lt John Batty in XG296 as number two, Flying Officer John Thomson as number three and Flt Lt Glyn Chapman as number four as senior man, to go on a low level navex and practice RP strike on a target about 120 miles East North East of Khormaksar. The briefing was to use a conventional Initial Point but to then try a new manoeuvre involving flying directly over the target at low level, in low level battle formation, flying for approximately one minute thirty seconds, pull up into a loop, spacing out to about 1,000 yards then roll out diving back on a reciprocal heading towards the target. The height above ground level at the top of the manoeuvre would be approximately 5,000 feet.
I commenced filming on lifting the RP switch on the control column with the bottom diamond in the vicinity of the target. The exercise was normal until Martin commenced his pull out at which stage I was about 1200 yards in trail. As Martin pulled out, his aircraft rolled very rapidly to the right and dove into the ground. I noticed what appeared to be smoke (probably fuel vapour) coming from the right wing during this time and saw no sign of Martin ejecting.
As I flew over the crash site, debris from the aircraft was flying forward covering a sizeable area. I then climbed up and on Glyn’s instruction put out a ‘Mayday’ call to Operations in Khormaksar. The other two aircraft circled the crash site whilst I relayed messages from about 10,000 to 12,000 ft or maybe higher.
I vividly remember one of the questions I was asked by operations being were there any survivors, to which I replied it was most unlikely. On Glyn’s instructions I then returned to base independently to be met by the Squadron Commander, Sqn Ldr Phil Champniss and the Station Commander Group Capt Blythe.
Subsequent to the crash my cine film was developed and I believe that the film was of great help to the investigators in establishing the cause of the crash. The aircraft were fitted with 230-gallon drop tanks and I do not believe at that time that they had been modified with the re-enforcing strut. Also it was worked out that we would not have burned-off enough fuel to empty the drop tanks.
There were no baffles in the tanks at that time to prevent the fuel sloshing forward in the dive. It appeared that the fuel had moved forward and in the pull out Martin had put such a load on the tanks that one had come off the pylon, gone under the wing, and the rear of the tank had flown up hitting the right aileron forcing it fully up, causing the aircraft to roll violently to the right. At the height the aircraft was above the ground (less than 500 feet) the aircraft was put in an irrecoverable position with no time or height to eject”.
On 18-04-1964, a 37 Squadron Shackleton was used to provide an R/T link between 26 Squadron Belvederes on the ground at the scene of the crash, and Tactical Operations back at Khormaksar.
Wreckage eventually recovered to 131 MU at RAF Khormaksar, for accident investigation. Struck off charge 25-07-1964 as Cat.5(scrap)
Sources:
http://radfanhunters.co.uk/mainframeset.htm
http://www.ukserials.com/losses-1964.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harf_Sufyan_District
http://www.gomapper.com/travel/where-is/rusais-located.html
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 10-Jan-2009 11:55 | ASN archive | Added |
| 07-Dec-2011 01:11 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 18-Jan-2012 09:58 | Nepa | Updated [Operator] |
| 16-Apr-2013 17:32 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Aircraft type, Location, Source, Narrative] |
| 30-Oct-2018 17:23 | JINX | Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Narrative] |
| 12-Nov-2018 09:34 | Nepa | Updated [Operator, Operator] |
| 20-Apr-2020 20:45 | AlLach | Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Operator] |
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