Memorial at Upper Heyford
There's a memorial at Upper Heyford to an F-111E crew that chose to attempt to avoid the village when landing instead of ejecting and the aircraft hitting the village/school (probably, you never know what's going to happen when an F-111 goes pilotless). The resulting crash just missed me by about 30yds as I rounded the end of the runway. I saw the fireball in my rear and sideview mirrors and felt the "thump" as the airframe impacted. Unfortunately, the crew did not survive the ejection (the capsule did eject, but with only a partial rocket motor burn so not high enough to fully engage the parachute). When we got to the capsule (another driver and I), it was...obvious the crew hit the instrument panel and had not survived, despite restraints, etc. To top it off, the aircrew and jet were from my squadron, where I was the maintenance officer...bad day all 'round.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
