NZ F-111 crash Aug 79 photos ADF-serials.com

[FlyNavy]

Correspondent (Matt 'Woody' Wood) to the www.adf-serials.com website:

www.adf-serials.com/invboard/index.php?showtopic=897

"These are a selection of my Fathers photos of the crash of F-111c A8-137 while on exercise in New Zealand in August 1979. Water on the runway caused both engines to flame out on takeoff, resulting in the aircraft leaving the end of the runway. Unfortunatley there was a large drop off at the end of the strip forcing the crew, FLTLT Mark Kelly and his navigator FLTLT AL Kerr to eject. Both crew walked away although the pilot did receive back injuries."

[flyjoe180]

Blimey there isn't much left of it. This was at Ohakea?

[FlyNavy]

www.adf-serials.com/ (RAAF aircraft Series 3 - F-111)

"A8-137 D1-13 F-111C Delivered to RAAF 01/10/73. Served with 1 Sqn. Crashed after water ingestion into engines during take-off. Crew ejected in escape module on Rwy 27 at 90 kts with only minor injuries, 24/08/79 near Ohakea New Zealand (1 Sqn). RAAF Ejection number 55. Both Crew, FLGOFF (P) M. Kelly, FLTLT (N) A. Curr survived ejection. Accident caused by water being ingested into air intakes. Tyre chine's were modified to F-111's so it wouldn't happen again."

Seems to be a very deep gully at the end of the runway 27.

[phil82]

Runway 27 runs from SH 1 end to 09 where there is an earth ramp from the end of the runway down to the bombdump.

The three gouges left by the undercarriage are on that ramp. the tarmac road is in fact the bomb dump access road. In the photo of the module and parachute, you can see in the background some of the Armaments Section stores, and at the top is the airfield itself.

Good photos, how did he get there that quickly?

[FlyNavy]

What would be the vertical drop and/or distance from the end of RW27 to that bomb dump road etc. I have never seen Ohakea, any clues would be helpful. Don't know about the photo gathering. You can join the adf-serials.com FORUM and ask that question there? My guess would be that the aircrew collected photos from various sources - at the time - so some of these are most likely RNZAF/RAAF Official?

[FlyNavy]

I gather from this Google Earth overhead that the distance from threshold to road is not great with a large vertical drop? Shades of RW26 threshold at NAS Nowra.

[phil82]

It's not vertical. Steep, but not vertical.You can drive down it. but you would need 4X4. to get back up! It was designed as a run-off, albeit rather steep!!That access road from the taxi-way to the bottom of the ramp wasn't there in 1979.

I doubt the photos are RNZAF, and if, as was suggested , someone's father took them, he may well have been one of the F111 detachment. Whoever it was. must have been on the flight line because it's not that far from where they were taken....if you're quick!

[FlyNavy]

Phil82, thanks I gather the hangars are not far off in the top right hand corner? What would you estimate the drop from runway to the road that we speak of please. Any guess will do as I have no clue thanks.

[phil82]

sinbad said:

Phil82, thanks I gather the hangars are not far off in the top right hand corner? What would you estimate the drop from runway to the road that we speak of please. Any guess will do as I have no clue thanks.

It would be no more than 15-20 metres vertically. You can see the curved top of N01 hangar in one of those photos looking back. From memory the ramp was originally graded for crash vehicle access.

[sniff]

The drop is no more than 100 feet, from memory; but a good little work out at the end of a run around the airfield! The runway has been competely rebuilt since then (2002, I think?) and has a dispaced threshold. Piano keys were originally pretty close to the end of the runway when the accident happened; more of that in a moment from a RWY 09 perspective. I arrived in an Andover from Whenuapai shortly after the accident and as the Crash Plan had swung into action, no aircraft from the base were allowed to fly until fuel contamination had been ruled out. So we did the photo shoot from the air. OH Photo Flight/CPE will have a full set of pics, if someone has access to those??? Hint, hint! Talking to the Air Traffickers afterwards, they wish they were quick enough to tell the pilot to steer left off the runway; you can see from the Google pic that there was plenty of room, and the Pig went off the end at a very low speed - it might have stopped in the grass/soft ground. ATC also said the capsule descended back through the fireball and they were very lucky not to land back on the wreck.

From that, I would say that pic one as probabaly taken from an earlier depature, I dont think the pig would have been in full AB at that stage! Pic 5 would have been taken from the edge of the runway, that should give you a idea of the fall distance/drop.

It is not the first accident there, the one most remember was a landing on 09, by a flight of Vampires in 1967. Murray Whineray lost his life, caught in the suck at the end of runway by the prevailing wind.

There are plenty of other "just missed the runway" stories too, mostly A-4's shedding wheels/ploughing the grass short of the runway, not only on 09/27, but on 33 too. Don will possibly know them better than I.

[FlyNavy]

Sniff, Thanks for that info. I can imagine there must have been some downdraught depending on wind speed and direction when landing on RW09. Was 09 used often or seldom? Sorry for all the questions. For example the runway at NAS Nowra with the downdraught problem 26 was seldom used in the reverse 08 direction (where the problem was 'rising' rather than 'sinking' ground before the threshold).
Phil.

[sniff]

09/27 is the main runway, it is usually calm, blowing a westerly, or an easterly funnelled through the Manawatu Gorge!

Vague memory says about 60/40 in favour of a westerly departure (being the prevailling wind)

www.aip.net.nz/pdf/NZOH_51.1_52.1.pdf

The link should give you a bit more SA.

Best departures were the 8/10 A4's departing for RAAF Richmond on a deployment! Tanker departed first, followed by the deploying jets. With three full drops, they were airborne at about the 6000 foot mark and didnt really start climbing until well off the end of the runway (5 miles?). They took a suck of gas at TOC and headed out across the Tazzy with only a P3 as their SAR/Comms cover. And we never lost one in all the years of crossing the ditch!

[FlyNavy]

OK, good to know. Yes heavy takeoffs on hot days nil wind at Nowra would be on 08 if possible so that the aircraft could drop into the gully at the end. Many people have commented about this on the 6000 foot NAS Nowra runways. There is a great photo of a heavy takeoff on 26 with one RNZAF No.75 Sqdn Skyhawk aircraft just lifting off to 'climb' parallel with the rising ground ahead. I'll look for the photo to post.

The RAN's regular hike was across to Perth, RAAF Pearce which No.2 RNZAF would have done in turn. Otherwise we had transportation aboard.

Photo below by Don Simms taken in 1991 as No.75 Sqdn depart NAS Nowra for Singapore:

[FlyNavy]

Reply from Woodsy when he saw comments about the F-111 crash on this forum:
"In response to the kiwi forum and in talking to my dad, that take off photo is from that flight. The F-111 was in full afterburner and then it popped as the engines flamed out (an F-111 is on full afterburner before it starts it's take-off roll.) My dad only took the takeoff and the aftermath photos, the fire photos were taken by a kiwi. My dad was part of the F-111 detachment (482Sqd), and was actually crew chief for 137 that day. Cheers." (Woodsy)

[woodziee]

Hi guys, I'm woodziee the one that posted the pics on the Adf-Serials site. It's cool to see the replies from you guys over there. My father can remember the Andover flying over that day, it was a tough day for him as he was crew chief for this F-111 and he was also suffering a huge hangover as well. Cheers.

[FlyNavy]

GoodDay Woodziee. Here is a photo of the wheel marks of NZ6255 (TA4K) damaging the turf on underrun to 09 at Ohakea with the drop off shown. Now I have a good sense of the scale of that drop. Thanks again all - and for the link to the Ohakea airfield chart PDF.

[corsair67]

I seem to recall someone telling me that two F-111s were taking off that afternoon: the first one got away alright, but the second wasn't so lucky?

I also have heard that the USAF had been using chined front tyres on the F-111 for some time before this incident but the RAAF hadn't yet adopted the same practice at the time?

[woodziee]

There were actually 4 aircraft taking off that day, it was the last flight of the exercise and 137 was the third in line to takeoff.

[paddy]

Re the F111 Crash: I got out of the RNZAF earlier that year but 2 of my friends were in the bomb dump in 4 Store belting ammunition and went out to see the F111's take off. They said the crew capsule was below runway level when the parachute opened. That drop off had it's uses.
I believe the pilot flying the A4 that left the wheel marks was Sqn Ldr Ching Fuller an ex RAF Pilot and all round nice guy

[skyhawkdon]

Ching Fuller's use of the A-4 undercarriage as a plough was a bit earlier than the photo here - I have a photo of his effort in my collection somewhere. Greg Elliot was the pilot of '55 which made these marks in 1989. Incidently I think many of the F-111 post crash fire photos were taken by former RNZAF Avionics Technician Davie Martell. Apparently he was watching the takeoff from the 75 Sqn flight line with his camera in hand and sprinted to the embankement and started snapping! A great collection of photos posted here - many I hadn't seen before. The road at the bottom of the embankement is a popular running road and when I used to run around the airfield in the late 1990's the scrape marks from the F-111 crash were still there!