On the 27th of July 1987 the crew of this Tornado were on a low level exercise over Yorkshire with a number of other aircraft when the controls of this aircraft jammed. The crew were left with little choice but to eject. They did so and survived, the aircraft came down just south of Fadmoor at the edge of a field and on top of a hedge. It made a four metre deep hole in the bedrock. An SAR helicopter (Sea King) was scrambled from RAF Boulmer and transported both crew members to Scarborough Hospital. The crash investigation later found that hydraulic system failure was to blame for the loss.

I am reliably informed that just after the crash had occured a local man went to the site and removed one of the missiles from the crash site and stored it under his stairs at his home in Rosedale Abbey. The RAF and other authorities at the crash site had an unaccounted for bomb so they spent days searching surrounding moorland for it to no avail. The man who had removed the bomb was boasting about having it to another man in the local pub when someone else overheard, the police were called and the whole of Rosedale was evacuated whilst the bomb was checked out !

The aircraft was built by Panavia and completed at Warton and first flew at Warton 8th February 1984. It went to A&AEE (Handling Sq.) at Boscombe Down 19th July 1984 before being transferred to ASF Bruggen on 7th August 1985. It was alloted to 31 Sqdn. at Bruggen and coded "DD" on 15th May 1985. It was destroyed in the crash detailed above, Cat. 5(s)FA damage being sustained.

Pilot - Sqdn Ldr Walker RAF, suffered minor injuries.

Nav - F/Lt Lloyd RAF, suffered a broken arm..

I visited the crash site in April 2002 to photograph it. The hole has been filled in but the area of the field is still uncultivated. A new hedge row had just been planted. Nothing of the wreckage was found but I didn't expect to find any on the surface. The RAF had removed it all.

BACK