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Now sitting above me a piece of wreckage from a Vampire that crashed at Pearce RAAF base Western Australia it was collected by my brother when he was stationed there.
Sadly my brother is no longer with us so its a pretty personal piece to me as he gave it to me when I was a teenager.
Do you know if the pilot survived the crash? Early ejection seats were not what they are today.
Served with 1 AFTS.
Crashed 24/05/60 near RAAF Pearce WA. Loss of control in IFC.
Pilot CDT K. Williams ejected at 6,000 ft with only minor injuries. RAAF Ejection number 16.
Of ejections my brother he told me of having to go out as part of a team to pick up wreckage of a F-111 that had crashed think this was when he was stationed at Amberly as a Flt/Sgt.
The plane was on a TFR (Terrain Following Radar) flight they are usually at about 200-250Ft FL anyway the aircraft was at about 250 knots when they hit a pelican which came through the pilots side wind screen and killed the pilot instantly.
According to my brother the F-111 banked to starboard (Right) at a fairly steep angle at which point the navigator initiated the escape modules ejection sequence all this happened in a matter of a few seconds.
They were exercising in fairly hilly terrain and whilst the plane was at this steep angle the module separated from the aircraft as designed but sadly this angle of departure put the module into the side of a hill killing the navigator.
All my brother said of this episode it was a pretty messy affair at the crash site.
Interesting aircraft the VAMPIRE very advanced looking for its time, but by God it crashed a lot.
My father was an RAF Fireman for his whole service right from WW2 to 1968. He ended his service at RAF Oakington 63-68 but was there in the 50's too, where most if not all of flying training was done back in the day at one central school just outside Cambridge.
He recieved a gallantry award for saving a pilot and instructor from a burning Vampire on the ground when it hit an apple orchard the crew didn't try to eject. He used his axe to smash open the cockpit. He was wearing the usual RAF Fire string vest heavy duty grey fire suit and white helmet. He got badly burnt but, had the sense to place all the pins in the seat to stop the ejector seats going off with him hanging over the crew. He undid the pilots harness, and pulled him out of the cockpit and saved his life, the instructor conscious managed to fall out.
Crashes at Oakington happened all the time and kept the Fire Section busy, mainly Varsity's that piled in during the 60's. During his time at RAF Seletar in Singapore he spent months away abseiling to recover downed Hastings aircraft crews bodies in the jungle of Malaya, using Whirlwind helicopters. He never wanted to talk about those, as they left their mark on him, being shot at whilst trying to get crews back in body bags.
The Hastings crashed all the time as did the Varsity's, they finally found that most were caused by a failing bolt in the tail fin.
Incident de Havilland DH.115 Vampire T Mk 11 XD451, 14 Nov 1955
Mid-air collision Accident de Havilland DH.115 Vampire T Mk 11 XD549, 07 Jul 1960