back to article Canadian flyboy prangs CF-18 Hornet

Canadian flyboy Captain Brian Bews had a narrow escape last Friday when his CF-18 Hornet decided to give up the ghost during a practice run at an airshow at Lethbridge airport in Alberta. Bews' injuries following his low-level ejection were described as "non-life threatening", although he's probably lost his no-claims …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Several CF-18 prangs

    listed here http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/Aircraft_by_Type/CF-18/cf_18_hornet.htm

  2. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Oops!

    Well, even Billy Bishop was known to bend the odd aircraft, so this Cannuck (Captain Brian Bews if the other Web reports are correct) could be the next Commonwealth ace. Very impressed with the performance of the ejector seat, it exits the cockpit horizontally but very quickly rotates through 90 degreees to fire the 'chute vertically. At least Sir James Martin would be smiling. But then the counter on the Martin-Baker site lists 18 other pilots that have ejected on M-B seats so far in 2010, so it's just this Canuck's poor luck to have his mistake caught on camera. I say send Brian his Caterpillar Club membership and get him back in a new Hornet, pronto.

  3. Yorkshirepudding
    Coat

    talk to me goose

    bit of t-cut and it'll buff out

    mines the one with the top gun soundtrack in

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    You can be my wingman anytime...

    Video is blocked here.... but that's cause my workplace doesn't allow videos through our firewall, otherwise the call centre staff would spend their time watching Fifty Pence on YouTube.

    Anyway, I think I saw this same video on the weekend... is it the one where the tannoys are blasting out "Staying Alive" by the Bee-Gees? If so, I thought that was incredibly apt :o)

    ps - I chose the pissed off icon cause it resembles the plane, not cause I'm pissed off.

  5. phuzz Silver badge
    Grenade

    Pictures

    Some good photos from a different angle here:

    http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/07/23/4739027-pilot-ejects-an-instant-before-fighterjet-crashes

  6. HeyMickey
    Coat

    Strange Coincidence

    It is a strange coincidence that I have been up at my local airfield (Lasham) training to recognise and recover from stalls/spins all weekend, only to come in to work on monday morning and see this. Definitely looks like a mushing stall, followed by a wing drop and the beginnings of a spin entry. If there was more distance to the ground, then a proper spin would probably have followed.

    For anyone blaming an engine failure, I would just like to point out that I have never found such things (engines) necessary in the first place, having had several 1hr+ flights this weekend without one. My suspicion is that the engine just runs a big fan to keep the pilot cool - you can tell this because when the fan stops, the pilot starts sweating...

    OK, I'll get my coat then. It's the one with the copy of 'A glider pilot bold' by Wally Kahn...

    1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
      Happy

      RE: Strange Coincidence

      ".....For anyone blaming an engine failure, I would just like to point out that I have never found such things (engines) necessary in the first place...." Well, unless you're using a cat launch at your glider field (unlikely, if I remember Lasham correctly), you'll find an engine and spinning fan on the front of whichever towplane dragged you up to a height where your glider could actually do some flying, and that was usually a lot higher than the height Capt Bews had his brown pants moment.

  7. SteveK

    Good advert choice

    I like the fact that when watching the AP video, just as the fireball started, google popped a normally irritating advert popup offering a 'course to beat fear of flying'...

    Steve.

  8. Adrian Midgley 1
    Flame

    Flickr pictures indicate lost engine

    The frilly bit at the back was wide open on one engine, good I'm told, and tucked in close on the other indicating, I'm told, that it wasn't working well.

    There is also an interesting picture of the half-crashed aircraft with a vast plume of fire coming out of one engine nozzle, and not out of the other, again suggesting that only one of the engines was still spinning, as both of them had their fronts in a big fire.

    Stills may be better than movies, people.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    Need an article on censorship

    This video is unable to be viewed in your region.

    WTF?

    This nasty little NAZI craze of blocking things is starting to creep into more and more and more vids etc.

    Even seeing vids of Aussie bands on Youtube, being blocked for viewing in Australia...

    Ohhhh here they are playing at my uncles 21st - some 30 years ago.....

    Nope - video not available due to copyright restrictions...

    Fuck this copyright bullshit.

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