Fighter jet involved in crash at Queensland air base

[spazsinbad]

Fighter jet involved in crash at Queensland air base
08 Dec 2020 NINEnews

"Two pilots have been forced to eject from a fighter jet at Amberley Airbase, south-west of Ipswich in Queensland.

A witness told 9News the F/A-18 Super Hornet was taking off with seven other jets when it appeared to suffer engine failure.

Both pilots ejected successfully and the aircraft ended up in grass beside the runway.

Images show the pilots coming down in their parachutes and the jet on the ground with its cockpit blown out.

There appears to be some damage around the front of the plane.

The Department of Defence confirmed this afternoon that both pilots are safe.

"Defence can confirm that an incident involving an Air Force aircraft has occurred at RAAF Base Amberley," a Defence spokesperson said."

Photo: http://www.aussiemodeller.com.au/forum/ ... jL2584.jpg

Source: https://www.9news.com.au/national/two-a ... 12c7b2717c

[spazsinbad]

VIDEO: Aircrew Chutes land as aircraft trundles into a ditch: https://7news.com.au/news/accidents/pil ... -c-1730017

[spazsinbad]

Defence grounds Super Hornet, Growler warplanes after aborted take-off at Amberley RAAF base
09 Dec 2020 Matthew Doran

"Defence has grounded 35 Australian warplanes after two crew members were forced to eject from a $75 million jet fighter during an aborted take-off at an air base in Queensland on Tuesday....

...Defence Minister Linda Reynolds confirmed the two pilots were safe, but said the entire RAAF fleet of Super Hornet and Growler jet fighters was being grounded out of an "abundance of caution".

The Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Mel Hupfeld, would not put a timeframe on the investigation, or how long the jet fighters would be out of action.

"We've got the fleet of 24 Super Hornets, and 11 EA-18G Growlers ... we've ceased our flying operations while we review the circumstances of this incident," he told reporters in Canberra.

"This is sophisticated machinery. I've got thousands of [flying] hours on the classic Hornet, and I'm not going to surmise on the cause of this incident...."

Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-09/ ... f/12964384

[spazsinbad]

Video .MP4 of Aircrew Landing by parachute with Super Hornet trundling into a ditch on the airfield, attached below.

Screengrab shows smoke I guess from an engine fire with aircraft engines at idle moving into the ditch later in the video.

[spazsinbad]

THESE PEOPLE call it an INCIDENT by NO ACCIDENT but WTF?! VIDEO

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australi ... i-BB1bL5MP

[spazsinbad]

Never having seen a rocket seat ejection or any for that matter except old videos I did not realise that the smoke seen in the video/screengrab above is probably from both ejection seat rockets as seen in this Martin-Baker photo testing same.

https://martin-baker.com/wp-content/upl ... mk14-3.jpg at https://martin-baker.com/products/mk14-ejection-seat/

Super Hornet NACES seat info is in the NATOPS: https://info.publicintelligence.net/F18-EF-000.pdf (19Mb)

[spazsinbad]

A story or two about going 'off piste' (off the runway) in miljets (F-4s): https://martin-baker.com/2020/11/03/andy-moir/

[outlaw162]

A story or two about going 'off piste' (off the runway) in miljets

I guess I'm allowed to add a story here about 'barely' going off the runway.

I was in the backseat of an F-100F with a student in front doing a remedial night formation landing. He had problems on his first attempt.

Just before touchdown, it wasn't the airplane that got squirrelly....it was the stud. He stomped in a chunk of rudder, maybe 'cause he thought we were getting too close like those T-38 dudes at Vance recently, and now we're drifting away. Wanted to give him a chance on this, but after touchdown I could see we were getting wide and when the nose came down I could see we were very close to the edge lights. Took the aircraft from him and slammed the throttle forward and heard a few muffled pops, pulled back when it felt right and we went around. Got airborne just before a 6 inch lip on a taxiway that probably would have collapsed the gear. (Didn't use 'em, but I think those seats were the 0/125 kind.)

The muffled pops were 4 'left' edge runway lites. Cut brake line showed we had taken them out with the 'right' main.

Anyway after we came around I updated my night backseat landing currency, the student got rescheduled to try it again, and the DO got to have a pleasant meeting with the airport authority about the cost to the ANG of replacing the lites.

All's well that ends well.

[spazsinbad]

NOT only BUT aslo (yes I know) a story about 'dummy deck' portable limpet lights. The runway would be completely blacked out along with any other lights on the airfield or near it including base building/roadway lights and any nearby base housing.

The idea was to replicate the 'dark abyss' seen at night for carrier deck landings. There is always residual horizon from very dim light from far away other sources but that depends upon cloud cover, with the moon giving some reflected light depending upon moon phase - it was our best attempt for a 'black out' MADDLS (mirror assisted dummy deck landings) session. These portable 'limpet shaped' lights would be placed on the runway by the LSO to make a 'dummy deck' alongside the portable mirror (for line up there was no suggestion except the orientation of the dummy deck marked out by the limpet lights on approach). I don't think I ever hit any of these lights myself (would be caused by poor line up which the LSO should wave off) but they told us that when hit the light would bounce into the air going any which way. However it would be unlikely that a limpet light would bounce back to hit the departing aircraft. These lights were shaped like a solid frisbee.

[beepa]

Latest news, there back flying most days. Assumed steering failure. https://adbr.com.au/raaf-super-hornets- ... n-the-air/

[spazsinbad]

RUMOUR has it that: "Backseater was a US Navy exchange officer". Rear seat ejects first so he was first '"RAAF" hornet' ejectee. Could be a different bloke by time of Dec 2020 Eject [a year later] but anyway:

US Air Force exchange officer soars with partners down under 26 Oct 2019 [and of course this one is USAF not USN]

https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display ... own-under/

[spazsinbad]

Investigators find pilot error responsible for aborted Super Hornet takeoff outside Brisbane
08 Jun 2022 Andrew Greene

"Human error has been officially blamed for a dramatic incident in which a RAAF Super Hornet pilot and a weapons officer ejected from their aircraft during an aborted take off....

...Both RAAF members escaped with minor injuries and the jet was able to be repaired and returned to service at a cost of about $1.5 million....

..."During the take-off roll, the aircraft departed the right side of the sealed runway surface, culminating in both aircrew ejecting," the report states....

...The DFSB's investigators found that "substandard adherence to checklist actions prior to the aircraft lining up resulted in a 'master caution' and 'check trim' message on the left digital display indicator as the throttles were advanced into afterburner for takeoff".

"During the takeoff roll, the check trim [indicator] caution distracted the pilot from prioritising focus on directional control, resulting in the aircraft's deviation in heading to go unnoticed/uncorrected for several seconds," the investigators found.

They added that "the crosswind conditions on the day, aircraft line-up position, and asymmetric stores loading exacerbated the tendency for the aircraft to deviate right from runway heading".

"Upon noticing the heading deviation, it is likely the pilot suffered an acute stress response followed by a short duration of impaired cognitive performance," the report states.

"During this period, a series of action errors were made in an attempt to correct and maintain directional control of the aircraft."

The report found as the Super Hornet reached its maximum ground speed the landing gear left the runway, hitting a runway edge light and causing the nose wheel steering to fail.

Without that, the aircraft was sent spiralling further off the sealed runway, where it hit a concrete mound and left the ground.

That led to the rear-seat weapons system officer "initiating the command ejection of both crew from the aircraft".

Investigators found the ejection likely cut the aircraft's throttles, and the jet continued to roll at idle thrust until it came to rest about 930 metres from the point of departure from the runway, and 200 metres right of the runway centreline...."

Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-08/ ... /101131502

[spazsinbad]

Super Hornet Take off problem crew eject RAAF Safety People investigate 7 page PDF attached below.

RUNWAY EXCURSION
SPOTLIGHT 02 2022 DEFENCE AVIATION SAFETY AUTHORITY

"Director DFSB comment:
This was a high-profile event due to the fact that footage of it was broadcast on the news almost immediately.

I am ever grateful that the crew of our Super Hornet was uninjured and that the aircraft was able to be repaired and is flying again. I was also very pleased at the response from the team at Amberley following the event and the engagement that our investigators had from a range of stakeholders; many of whom work in Air Combat Group. The investigation report is of high quality and forensic in its analysis of huge swathes of data, and therefore highly credible.

One of the most important discussion points that might come from this report is the ‘acute stress response’ of the pilot, which is a human response to which none of us is immune. In other words, when we’re placed in highly stressful situations we’re going to react in some unpredictable ways.

This is not a scenario or reaction that is limited to fast-jet aircrew and is a human factor that is worthy of deeper understanding."

https://defence.gov.au/DASP/Docs/Media/ ... gation.pdf (6Mb)

[jessmo112]

Investigators find pilot error responsible for aborted Super Hornet takeoff outside Brisbane
08 Jun 2022 Andrew Greene

"Human error has been officially blamed for a dramatic incident in which a RAAF Super Hornet pilot and a weapons officer ejected from their aircraft during an aborted take off....

...Both RAAF members escaped with minor injuries and the jet was able to be repaired and returned to service at a cost of about $1.5 million....

..."During the take-off roll, the aircraft departed the right side of the sealed runway surface, culminating in both aircrew ejecting," the report states....

...The DFSB's investigators found that "substandard adherence to checklist actions prior to the aircraft lining up resulted in a 'master caution' and 'check trim' message on the left digital display indicator as the throttles were advanced into afterburner for takeoff".

"During the takeoff roll, the check trim [indicator] caution distracted the pilot from prioritising focus on directional control, resulting in the aircraft's deviation in heading to go unnoticed/uncorrected for several seconds," the investigators found.

They added that "the crosswind conditions on the day, aircraft line-up position, and asymmetric stores loading exacerbated the tendency for the aircraft to deviate right from runway heading".

"Upon noticing the heading deviation, it is likely the pilot suffered an acute stress response followed by a short duration of impaired cognitive performance," the report states.

"During this period, a series of action errors were made in an attempt to correct and maintain directional control of the aircraft."

The report found as the Super Hornet reached its maximum ground speed the landing gear left the runway, hitting a runway edge light and causing the nose wheel steering to fail.

Without that, the aircraft was sent spiralling further off the sealed runway, where it hit a concrete mound and left the ground.

That led to the rear-seat weapons system officer "initiating the command ejection of both crew from the aircraft".

Investigators found the ejection likely cut the aircraft's throttles, and the jet continued to roll at idle thrust until it came to rest about 930 metres from the point of departure from the runway, and 200 metres right of the runway centreline...."

Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-08/ ... /101131502

Judging by the pilot's reaction. I hereby request that this plane be renamed O-Sh*t!! This should be painted in bright red

[35_aoa]

There is good reason that low and high speed aborts/rejected takeoffs are practiced in every annual check ride I've ever "flown" (in the sim of course). This has been screwed away plenty throughout the years, for various reasons and scenarios. Sometimes to much greater effect/damage; crew and aircraft got quite lucky in this example. An F/A-18 "check trim" caution should warrant a low speed abort. That caution will be triggered as soon as you move the throttles up for takeoff, before they even reach the min afterburner/reheat detent, so they were likely at single digits on the airspeed indicator when it was first triggered. I'm sure this will provide a good case study for future training though!