Tornado fire at Yeovilton

“so the runaway afterburner could not do any damage”

A bit pedantic but do you mean runaway engine, as reheat can’t ‘speed up’. Reheat can overfuel but that would require a pilot selection of RH.

So a case of Batts OFF to early then!

Okay, ‘runaway engine’ then, but you can’t have the afterburner on if the engine is not running, so that’s pretty obvious! Yes indeed, ‘batts off too early’ appeared to be the cause.

“so the runaway afterburner could not do any damage”

A bit pedantic but do you mean runaway engine, as reheat can’t ‘speed up’. Reheat can overfuel but that would require a pilot selection of RH.

So a case of Batts OFF to early then!

[QUOTE=Jimmy the Kid]

If it was a runaway:
I don’t think the flames would be looking like a BBQ, there’s 9000 lb of thrust at max I think.
I don’t think the fire crew would let the ground crew continue to gravity refuel the Gnat nearby!
And a brave man would stand at the back of a RB199 as it ‘ran away’ with or without a fire extinguisher!!!

Ianthefish, just to put the record straight the fire in the photographs is the after effect of the engine run-up and not the event itself. The ground crew had long since vacated the refueling vehicle because the Tornado had jumped it’s chocks and was being driven at the bowser and Gnat. Look at the nosewheel position. It is twisted to 90deg of the direction of travel in an effort to avoid an even bigger incident. Fortunately the engine destructed itself before this could happen. The guys with the extinguisher are dealing with the reidual fire and not the main event.

Surely ‘the event itself’ WAS the engine run-up which lit fuel in the pipe? The Tornado did not ‘jump its chocks’ but was rapidly turned through 90 degrees by the pilot,so the runaway afterburner could not do any damage. The chocks were put in place as soon as it was stopped. The aircraft was not’being driven at the Gnat and bowser’ as it had just been turned round and stopped by the pilot, then chocked.It appears much closer to the bowser and Gnat, as the distance is compressed by my 400mm lens. Incidently, these photos made the front page of the Western Daily Press the following day.

Engine runaway – I think so!

[QUOTE=ianthefish]If it was a runaway:
I don’t think the flames would be looking like a BBQ, there’s 9000 lb of thrust at max I think.
I don’t think the fire crew would let the ground crew continue to gravity refuel the Gnat nearby!
And a brave man would stand at the back of a RB199 as it ‘ran away’ with or without a fire extinguisher!!!

Ianthefish, just to put the record straight the fire in the photographs is the after effect of the engine run-up and not the event itself. The ground crew had long since vacated the refueling vehicle because the Tornado had jumped it’s chocks and was being driven at the bowser and Gnat. Look at the nosewheel position. It is twisted to 90deg of the direction of travel in an effort to avoid an even bigger incident. Fortunately the engine destructed itself before this could happen. The guys with the extinguisher are dealing with the reidual fire and not the main event.

Nice photos mate;)

Engine run away? I think not

If it was a runaway:
I don’t think the flames would be looking like a BBQ, there’s 9000 lb of thrust at max I think.
I don’t think the fire crew would let the ground crew continue to gravity refuel the Gnat nearby!
And a brave man would stand at the back of a RB199 as it ‘ran away’ with or without a fire extinguisher!!!

Probably residual fuel burning, perhaps a leak caused by valve not closing properly.

If it was just a jet pipe fire, I believe they could get away with a quick inspection, the jet pipes are designed to operate in a fairly harsh environment!

As to a run away, caused by selecting ‘Batts Off’ I believe ‘Batts ON’ fixes the problem.

Throttle movement forward = less millivolts = more fuel put in the can
Throttle movement to rear = more millivolts = less fuel
Batteries OFF or Elect Failure = No millivolts = lots and lots of fuel untill Bang!

RB199 UETF (Uninstalled Engine Test Facility) had battery back ups should the base electricity supply fail. Batteries (wet) were checked on a weekly (I think) basis and signed for. Of course you could actually sign that you had checked them, when you actually had not.
If the previous checks had also been done in a similar ‘professional manner’
the batteries might not be in a very good condition!

On the last day of each month the base tests the emergency generators by shutting down normal power. There is an engine test being done, the power goes off and the batteries take over to maintain the ‘electricral control’ ………….. I said ‘the batteries take over to maintain the ‘electricral control’ ………….. or perhaps, because they are DRY there is no back up and the engine self destructs!

Not that this hypothetical event would take place in todays modern professional military..although yesterdays is a different matter!

The RB199 has no mechanical overspeed govenors and it relies on its engine control computers to keep it in its cage. If there is fault, or if someone switches off the electrics that supply the computers, the engine will accelerate to destruction, with a mix of compressor and turbine blades spraying themselves over the adjacent real estate. If the jet pipes were pointing at the crowd and if the aircraft had been close to the crowdline then there would have been the potential for some serious bloodshed. This has happened before, way back to the early 1980s, but I thought they had got a grip of it now.

Is that a battery off before shutdown?. Engine change to be carried out.

Will the play need repaying?

James

Do you know what actually happened, i heard the afterburners just lit up and pistons started flying all over where the Sea Vixen was parked in the static display. As I was leaving i saw the Navy picking the pistons off the floor!

I was over by the BBMF pan when the Tornado taxied in – so all I heard was him ‘gunning’ the engine.

Then the fire engines raced across from the far side – so we wandered round to see what was happening – way too late of course, the drama had finished by then.

However…… as we stood by the fence, I heard one of the pilots from the Yak Aerobatic team say to a spectator – ‘if you see anything, pick it up’ – or something like that.

They appeared to have been doing a FOD check – and were still scanning the ground around the Yaks/fenceline.

Dunno what it was all about though…………..

Ken

TONADO ENGINE RUN-AWAY

The RB199 has no mechanical overspeed govenors and it relies on its engine control computers to keep it in its cage. If there is fault, or if someone switches off the electrics that supply the computers, the engine will accelerate to destruction, with a mix of compressor and turbine blades spraying themselves over the adjacent real estate. If the jet pipes were pointing at the crowd and if the aircraft had been close to the crowdline then there would have been the potential for some serious bloodshed. This has happened before, way back to the early 1980s, but I thought they had got a grip of it now.

The ‘wise old heads’ on PPRuNe (military board) say that if you are a bit hasty turning off the electrics, the governors become disengaged and the engine can ‘run away’. Or something.

Do you know what actually happened, i heard the afterburners just lit up and pistons started flying all over where the Sea Vixen was parked in the static display. As I was leaving i saw the Navy picking the pistons off the floor!

I was stood by the Sea Vixen when this happened and didn’t see any ‘pistons’ flying about, as I ran to the fence. The only ‘pistons’ I saw flying were BBMF and the Yaks! 😉

Do you know what actually happened, i heard the afterburners just lit up and pistons started flying all over where the Sea Vixen was parked in the static display. As I was leaving i saw the Navy picking the pistons off the floor!

now thats an expensive barby!! 😮