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Post by skyhawkdon on Mar 7, 2019 9:25:07 GMT 12
All Thanks for corrections/update especially Al, McFly and Errol There are maybe 2 Fatal Ejections I think: 25 March 1981 Skyhawk NZ6253 Flight Lieutenant John Nicholas Dick U85647 I have seen this reported as "ejected to low" There was no attempt to eject in this accident. The chute seen in the trees was from the unoccupied rear seat which went off during the impact. |
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Post by skyhawkdon on Mar 7, 2019 9:32:44 GMT 12
As already posted 'Scott Armour' and also 'Antony Fraser' Wed 20 Nov 1991 Low-level navigation exercise 14 Squadron, RNZAF Base Ohakea (detachment at Tauranga)British Aircraft Corporation Strikemaster Mk 88 NZ6369 - took off with two others from Tauranga, where the Squadron had been participating in Exercise FALCON’S ROOST for three days. Failed to recover whilst performing aerobatics and crashed in dense forest near Ohaaki, some 20km NE of Taupo, shortly before 1253. Guided to the site by an Aermacchi MB-339CB circling overhead, a Philips Search and Rescue Trust helicopter was first on the scene, shortly after 1300, and quickly established that NZ6369’s pilot, the sole occupant, was dead. His funeral in Ohakea’s No 3 hangar on the 25th was attended by over 600 people, following which he was cremated. Pilot: N90195 Flt Lt Craig Jonathan Wylie TANNER, RNZAF - Age 29. Errol The aircraft wasn't performing aerobatics when it hit the trees. It was flying level at low level (100-200ft AGL) and flew into a stand of taller trees on a ridgeline. It is believed the position of the sun was a factor and the fact that he was expecting to be bounced so would have been looking behind the aircraft and not spending a lot of time looking forward. He initiated ejection after loosing control with the aircraft, at approx. 90 deg angle of bank and descending. His seat had just cleared the aircraft when it and the aircraft impacted the trees/ground. |
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Post by paulmcmillan on Nov 13, 2019 22:39:41 GMT 12
One New Zealander "missing" from this list is Lt Bruce Douglas Macfarlane (from Auckland) who joined Royal Navy and ejected about 20 feet underwater from Westland Wyvern S4 WL876 of 813 Sqn, HMS Albion in the Mediterranean on 13th Oct 1954. He was born 11th August 1923 and died in UK in Feb 1994. He trained in the US around 1943
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Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 16, 2019 12:05:33 GMT 12
Wow, I have never heard of an underwater ejection before, that's very interesting.
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Post by errolmartyn on Nov 16, 2019 15:19:45 GMT 12
Westland W.35 Wyvern S.4 (4,110shp Armstrong-siddeley Python 3)
WL876 . . . 813 Sqn Ford ('186/Z') by 6.54; Engine flamed-out on catapult as a result of fuel starvation, lost overboard from Albion, the aircraft was cut in two by the ship, off Europa point, Glbraltar, Cat ZZ 13.10.54 (Lt B D MacFarlane made a successful underwater ejection aft although ejection seats not cleared for such use) [TFH 61.35]
(Air-Britain's Fleet Air Arm Fixed-Wing Aircraft since 1946)
Errol
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Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 16, 2019 15:28:46 GMT 12
That would be one hell of a ride!!
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Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 24, 2019 22:31:43 GMT 12
Does anyone know if Bruce Douglas Macfarlane is still alive now?
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Post by errolmartyn on Nov 24, 2019 22:51:01 GMT 12
Does anyone know if Bruce Douglas Macfarlane is still alive now? Born 11 Aug 1923. Enlisted RNZAF as NZ4216694 on 18 Dec 42. To RNZN as NZ7356 for Fleet Air Arm 17 Jun 43. Died 7 Feb 1994. Death registered at Birdham, Sussex, England. Errol |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 25, 2019 0:34:11 GMT 12
Thanks Errol, that's a pity. He'd have been interesting to interview.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 1, 2021 22:25:23 GMT 12
One New Zealander "missing" from this list is Lt Bruce Douglas Macfarlane (from Auckland) who joined Royal Navy and ejected about 20 feet underwater from Westland Wyvern S4 WL876 of 813 Sqn, HMS Albion in the Mediterranean on 13th Oct 1954. He was born 11th August 1923 and died in UK in Feb 1994. He trained in the US around 1943 EJECTOR SEAT WORKS UNDER WATER (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. p.m.) VALETTA, Oct. 26 A New Zealand pilot saved his life when his fighter plane plunged into the Mediterranean - by using an ejector seat. This device, designed for parachute escapes at height, worked under the water to shoot him to the surface. The pilot, Lieutenant Bruce Macfarlane, who is serving with the Royal Navy;s 813rd Squadron, was flying a Westland Wyvern turbo-prop fighter. He was being catapulted from the aircraft-carrier Albion when the engine failed and the plane plunged into the sea, and as it began to sink the carrier's bows crashed into it. Lieutenant Macfarlane pulled the ejector release and was propelled to the surface with nothing worse than a broken collarbone. He is now ashore at Malta recuperating. PRESS, 28 OCTOBER 1954 |
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Post by phil on Oct 2, 2021 13:15:21 GMT 12
Martin Baker designed a system of adapting seats capable of underwater ejection for use on carriers. Although I don't believe the Mk2 fitted to the Wyvern was such a seat, perhaps this incident prompted its design.
Here's a couple of paragraphs from a history of MB Seats:
An underwater escape system has been designed by Martin-Baker to provide automatic escape from submerged aircraft, even though the occupants may be unconscious. An ejection seat fitted with this underwater system is capable of ejecting the occupant from the aircraft, separating him from the seat and bringing him to the surface by means of a fully inflated lifejacket, no action whatsoever being necessary by the seat occupant.
Incorporation of the underwater system provides the standard seat with this additional facility, but in no way affects the normal ballistic operation of the seat during an airborne ejection.
Modifications to the seat consist of an air cylinder mounted either on the seat or on the aircraft bulkhead and charged to 3000 lb per square inch. Air from this cylinder is released at a pre-set depth as the aircraft sinks, and pressure is directed into the ejection gun cylinder. This results in the extension of the ejection gun tubes and subsequent seat ejection.
Air is also piped to a drogue gun trip rod release unit to disconnect the trip rod, to prevent the gun from firing and thus prevent the drogues from deploying.
The time-release unit operates as in a normal ejection to give seat/man separation. Bladders positioned behind the parachute pack and beneath the survival pack inflate during separation, to push the occupant clear of the seat. Parachute deployment is prevented by severance of the parachute withdrawal line by a guillotine as the occupant leaves the seat. After separation from the seat, the occupant rises to the surface aided by his inflated lifejacket, which is inflated by pressure from a CO2 cylinder mounted on his lifejacket, and actuated by air pressure from the air cylinder.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 2, 2021 13:42:33 GMT 12
This one is terrifying. And even worse that it was Peter Bevan's third time he had to leave an aircraft due to an in-flight emergency. And very sad that his navigator did not make it out alive. From the PRESS, 31 October 1961:
Pilot’-s Escape From Lightning-Struck Plane
(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) SINGAPORE, October 30.
A young New Zealand jet bomber pilot today told how he bailed out of his upside down Canberra as it spun out of control after being struck by lightning 40,000 feet over southern Malaya. He is 26-year-old Flight-Lieutenant Peter Bevan, of Takapuna, Auckland, who is attached to No. 75 Squadron, Royal New Zealand Air Force, based on Singapore Island.
Bevan was today admitted to Changi Royal Air Force Hospital. Singapore, suffering from exposure, exhaustion, head and spinal injuries, and bruised limbs.
An R.A.F. spokesman said the young pilot, who had survived his third parachute jump from a stricken plane, was mentally confused and did not clearly recall the sequence of events over the past three days. After being carried to a Malayan village police station this morning by a Chinese wood-cutter, Flight-Lieutenant Bevan told a halting story of his survival in the jungles of northern Johore State.
This, according to the Royal Air Force, is his story: “My navigator, Flying Officer D. L. Finn (of Taihape, New Zealand) and I took off from the R.A.F. base at Tengah, Singapore, on the night of Thursday, October 26. “We climbed normally to 40,000 feet on course to the Royal Australian Air Force base at Butterworth, Northern Malaya. At this height we ran into heavy cumulonimbus cloud and the aircraft was struck by lightning.
Plane In Spins
“My instruments were disoriented. The Canberra was thrown into a spin, and became uncontrollable.
“I twice ordered Flying Officer Finn to eject himself and heard a bang which could have been the explosion of his ejector charge. The plane was upside down and had fallen 32,000 feet to 8000 feet when I fired my ejector charge.
“I recall landing in a high tree and hanging there. I undid my harness and began to climb down, but a branch broke and I fell.
“When I woke up it was daylight. I do not know which day it was.
“I got out my survival pack and, using the compass in it, to guide me, set off to the west through fairly heavy jungle until I came to a track.
"I followed this track, but I don’t know for how long. Eventually I met a man who took me to the police.”
Flight-Lieutenant Bevan is not being allowed any visitors and is expected to be in hospital for a week. His wife, the only visitor permitted, will be taken to see him tonight.
Patrol Strengthened
Six more Air Force planes have been added to the 13 aircraft patrolling over Southern Malaya for signs of the still-missing navigator. An R.A.F. spokesman said that when Bevan’s parachute was first sighted last Saturday three aircraft reported the sighting, but three different positions of the parachute were reported. It was possible that they had in fact been talking of two different parachutes and the whole area was therefore being scrutinised minutely. R.N.Z.A.F. Headquarters in Wellington said last night that Flight-Lieutenant Bevan had arrived at Bahu village, about 12 miles north-west of where a parachute hanging in the trees had been sighted on Sunday.
Previous Escapes
Flight _ Lieutenant Bevan was born in England, and went with his parents who now live in Auckland, to New Zealand at the age of four. He trained at the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell. He had previously had two parachute escapes in New Zealand.
Squadron Leader H. G. Moss, his commanding officer, said the first time Flight-Lieutenant Bevan was piloting a Vampire jet fighter when it suffered engine failure and he had to bail out The second time, he was again in a Vampire which went into a spin from which it could not be pulled out and once more Flight-Lieutenant Bevan fired his ejector seat.
In Auckland, his parents Mr and Mrs S. M. Bevan, of Takapuaa, greeted the news of their son’s safety. “The four days have been like four months to us,” said Mr Bevan. “We hope now that Peter can give them some idea where David Finn is.”
Mr Bevan said the Malayan adventure was the fourth time Flight-Lieutenant Bevan had experienced trouble with jet aircraft. At Cranwell College, his jet engine “flamed out” during training. He was commended for landing the aircraft without power.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 2, 2021 13:48:32 GMT 12
Not ejector seat related, but this is the story of Peter Bevan's first emergency escape from an aircraft, from the PRESS, 17 December 1957:
R.N.Z.A.F. Pilots Escape From jet Out Of Control
(New Zealand Press Association)
WELLINGTON, December 16.
Two Royal New Zealand Air Force jet pilots, an instructor and a pupil, parachuted to safety near Ohakea this morning after they struggled to free themselves from a jet aircraft which was plunging to earth out of control. The instructor, Squadron-Leader David Ewan Jamieson, aged 27, and his pupil, Pilot-Officer Peter Granville Bevan, aged 22, were in a twin-seater Vampire jet from the R.N.Z.A.F. station at Ohakea.
At 9.55 a.m., during aerobatics at 28.000 feet, south of Marton, the aircraft went into an uncontrollable spin which became more violent as the Vampire plunged earthwards. The instructor jettisoned the canopy and told his pupil to bale out. The pupil managed to get himself half out of the fighter, but air pressure and the centrifugal force of the spin pinned him there, unable to jump clear. The instructor managed to bump the aircraft sufficiently to shoot the pupil pilot clear. Then the instructor stood on the seat and, kicking the control column with one foot, also shot himself clear.
As Pilot-Officer Bevan was forced clear of the spinning aircraft, his right shoulder struck portion of it, breaking his collarbone. This left him with scarcely sufficient strength to pull the ripcord of his parachute, but with a desperate second attempt he succeeded.
Both men landed safely, 200 yards from each other, on the banks of the Rangitikei river, about five miles from Ohakea. The aircraft crashed into the flooded Rangitikei two miles upstream, leaving only the tail portion above water.
An R.N.Z.A.F. officer, praising the cool courage of Squadron Leader Jamieson, said it must have taken great nerve to remain at the controls and free his pupil before bailing out himself. The aircraft did not have the standard ejector seats. Some other two-seater Vampires at Ohakea have them, and the conversion of the others is under way.
Squadron-Leader Jamieson was born at Shirley, Christchurch, and educated at the Christchurch Boys’ High School and New Plymouth Boys’ High School. He was a member of the Air Training Corps, and in April, 1949, joined the R.N.Z.A.F. He was commissioned at the end of his pilot training, and after a flying instructor’s course at Wigram, was posted to exchange duties with the Royal Air Force in Britain and Europe as a fighter pilot. He returned to New Zealand last year and has been a jet fighter instructor since. He was married in Australia in July.
Pilot Officer Bevan was born in London and came to New Zealand with his parents when he was seven years old. He was educated at Nelson College where he was a prefect and a warrant officer in the Air Training Corps squadron at the college. He joined the R.N.Z.A.F. in 1954 as a cadet pilot and was later selected to attend the R.A.F. college at Cranwell. He returned to New Zealand in April this year after completing the three-year course at Cranwell. He was at Wigram from June to September and is at present on a fighter conversion course at Ohakea.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 2, 2021 15:14:04 GMT 12
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Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 31, 2021 10:27:50 GMT 12
I have been recording the memories of some of those who have ejected. You can listen to the first two incredible stories here:
WONZ 246 cambridgeairforce.org.nz/WONZShow/2021/10/wonz-246-great-escapes-1-geoff-hubbard/
WONZ 247 cambridgeairforce.org.nz/WONZShow/2021/10/wonz-247-great-escapes-2-peter-lindsay/
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Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 31, 2021 13:20:45 GMT 12
Here is another article relating to the Canberra incident where Peter Bevan ejected. From the PRESS, 2 NOVEMBER 1961
NAVIGATOR DEAD
Canberra Found
(N.Z.P.A .-Reuter—Copyright) SINGAPORE, Nov. 1
Air searchers located the wreckage of the missing Royal New Zealand Air Force Canberra jet bomber today and the body of its missing navigator beside it, the Royal Air Force said tonight. The navigator was: Flying Officer D. L. Finn, of Taihape.
The R.A.F. spokesman said the Canberra’s wreckage was found about six miles from where its pilot, Flight-Lieutenant P. Bevan, of Auckland, landed safely by parachute last Thursday night. The body of his navigator was found about 50 yards from the wreck, which lay scattered through heavy jungle about 100 miles northwest of Singapore.
The Canberra took off from Tengah Air Base, Singapore, for the Royal Australian Air Force base at Butterworth, North Malaya, on a night exercise flight. The R.A.F. has reported the pilot as saying he was struck by lightning at a height of about 40,000 feet over southern Malaya. The plane went into a spin and became uncontrollable. Flight-Lieutenant Bevan was reported to have twice instructed Flying Officer Finn to bale out and said he heard a bang which could have been the explosion of Finn’s ejector charge but he could not confirm this.
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Post by tbf2504 on Nov 1, 2021 12:14:02 GMT 12
The aircraft was a Canberra B2 WF915 one of the leased RAF Canberras operated by 75 Squadron at Tengah
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 25, 2022 19:59:57 GMT 12
Here is an account from Peter Bevan about his ejection from the Canberra, from The Press dated 31 October 1961:
Pilot’s Escape From Lightning-Struck Plane
(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) SINGAPORE, October 30.
A young New Zealand jet bomber pilot today told how he bailed out of his upside down Canberra as it spun out of control after being struck by lightning 40,000 feet over southern Malaya. He is 26-year-old Flight-Lieutenant Peter Bevan, of Takapuna, Auckland, who is attached to No. 75 Squadron, Royal New Zealand Air Force, based on Singapore Island.
Bevan was today admitted to Changi Royal Air Force Hospital. Singapore, suffering from exposure, exhaustion, head and spinal injuries, and bruised limbs.
An R.A.F. spokesman said the young pilot, who had survived his third parachute jump from a stricken plane, was mentally confused and did not clearly recall the sequence of events over the past three days. After being carried to a Malayan village police station this morning by a Chinese wood-cutter, Flight-Lieutenant Bevan told a halting story of his survival in the jungles of northern Johore State.
This, according to the Royal Air Force, is his story: “My navigator, Flying Officer D. L. Finn (of Taihape, New Zealand) and I took off from the R.A.F. base at Tengah, Singapore, on the night of Thursday, October 26. “We climbed normally to 40,000 feet on course to the Royal Australian Air Force base at Butterworth, Northern Malaya. At this height we ran into heavy cumulonimbus cloud and the aircraft was struck by lightning.
Plane In Spins
“My instruments were disoriented. The Canberra was thrown into a spin, and became uncontrollable. “I twice ordered Flying Officer Finn to eject himself and heard a bang which could have been the explosion of his ejector charge. The plane was upside down and had fallen 32,000 feet to 8000 feet when I fired my ejector charge.
“I recall landing in a high tree and hanging there. I undid my harness and began to climb down, but a branch broke and I fell.
“When I woke up it was daylight. I do not know which day it was.
“I got out my survival pack and, using the compass in it, to guide me, set off to the west through fairly heavy jungle until I came to a track.
"I followed this track, but I don’t know for how long. Eventually I met a man who took me to the police.”
Flight-Lieutenant Bevan is not being allowed any visitors and is expected to be in hospital for a week. His wife, the only visitor permitted, will be taken to see him tonight.
Patrol Strengthened
Six more Air Force planes have been added to the 13 aircraft patrolling over Southern Malaya for signs of the still-missing navigator. An R.A.F. spokesman said that when Bevan’s parachute was first sighted last Saturday three aircraft reported the sighting, but three different positions of the parachute were reported. It was possible that they had in fact been talking of two different parachutes and the whole area was therefore being scrutinised minutely.
R.N.Z.A.F. Headquarters in Wellington said last night that Flight-Lieutenant Bevan had arrived at Bahu village, about 12 miles north-west of where a parachute hanging in the trees had been sighted on Sunday.
Previous Escapes
Flight-Lieutenant Bevan was born in England, and went with his parents who now live in Auckland, to New Zealand at the age of four. He trained at the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell. He had previously had two parachute escapes in New Zealand. Squadron Leader H. G. Moss, his commanding officer, said the first time Flight-Lieutenant Bevan was piloting a Vampire jet fighter when it suffered engine failure and he had to bail out. The second time, he was again in a Vampire which went into a spin from which it could not be pulled out and once more Flight-Lieutenant Bevan fired his ejector seat.
In Auckland, his parents Mr and Mrs S. M. Bevan, of Takapuna, greeted the news of their son’s safety. “The four days have been like four months to us,” said Mr Bevan. “We hope now that Peter can give them some idea where David Finn is.”
Mr Bevan said the Malayan adventure was the fourth time Flight-Lieutenant Bevan had experienced trouble with jet aircraft. At Cranwell College, his jet engine “flamed out” during training. He was commended for landing the aircraft without power.
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Post by Antonio on Aug 2, 2022 18:48:36 GMT 12
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Post by pepe on Aug 2, 2022 22:08:25 GMT 12
The reassuring tones of the Kaitaia NDB can be clearly heard on the audio. So close and yet so far..... |
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