Firefly question

Hook snapped off, splash ! splash ! pilot got out and sat on the wing 🙂
Have series of 4 photos if anyone is interested. Maybe this one ?

Unlikely to be this one as it appears to still have hook attached in the image posted.

But agree, would still like to see the pictures! 🙂

Yes please!

Yes, please share them. Thanks.

804 Sqdn. HMS Eagle. Seahawk 187 ditching.

Hook snapped off, splash ! splash ! pilot got out and sat on the wing 🙂
Have series of 4 photos if anyone is interested. Maybe this one ?

Sea Hawk

The hook’s still retracted so that adds credence to a deck accident and/or being dumped overboard.

Anon.

I think that’s why Nick was careful to say that it could have been from a similar deck accident, and why I was saying that the only frame there that could have possibly had the same damage would be ‘978 which we can’t see properly.
All aircraft concerend have their wings partially or fully folded, so unlikely that the wings were spread before being stripped and dumped.

I think Nick is on the right path with a deliberate dumping overboard, I can’t currently find details of the one I mentioned earlier.

There’s a good number of Sea Hawks down there (R.Navy, German, Dutch, Indian), unfortunately without knowing location details of the wreck, matching or it’s serial it’s going to be a guess.

Firefly question

A quick check on www.ukserials.com shows that

WM987 d/d 17/08/1954, w/o 20/06/1961, s.o.c. 17/11/1961, b/u for spares Hal Far, Malta

WM978 d/d 15/07/1954, to Armstrong Whitworth 23/07/1959, to Indian Navy as IN156

Which would rule out those two as possible contenders. In other words, I still don’t know which Sea Hawk it was, but I know which two it wasn’t!

Gents, I think you may be barking up the wrong tree. To my eyes it looks as if the rear fuselage is twisted and separated at the point where the wing trailing edge meets the exhaust duct… The wing seems to still have the radius where it would join the duct.

I don’;t know the seahawk well enough to count the ribs on the flap, but I don’t see impact damage from another aircraft. Its an odd angle but it almost appears as if the port wing is canted forwards……

Edit – there are 10 ribs on the Sea Hawk and I can count 10 ribs on the flap. I’d say that this damage is a fuselage split along the transport joint leading to separation of the wing trailing edge along the line of the exhaust. Could have been caused by corrosion over time / impact on the sea bed / hit by a trawler…….

Just edited my last, out of those aircraft can WM978 be the only contender?

FAA deck crews (and aircrew of course) definitely earned every penny that they received, what a horrendous working environment they had to endure.

A work colleague of my Dad’s walked with a bit of a limp… when Dad asked why, he said he was working on deck once when a Gannet rolled over his leg, badly breaking it! 😮

Then our next door neighbour told the story of when there was a high-pressure steam leak (from the catapult) on board – you don’t want to hear what the result was there… thankfully he wasn’t in the room at the time, otherwise he would never have been around to tell the story.

Just edited my last, out of those aircraft can WM978 be the only contender?

Deck accidents were too common (see recent Wyvern thread), FAA deck crews (and aircrew of course) definitely earned every penny that they received, what a horrendous working environment they had to endure.

Actually, for those that are interested, the incident I described is pictured here on our very own website:
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=53041

The Sea Hawk involved in that incident was FB.3 WM980. The other aircraft were WM912, WM931, WM978 and WM987.

Rob

That’s a good call Nick, the damage to the inboard wing area seems cunducive to being involved with that incident.
I can’t view the pic at the mo, but are the jetpipes etc missing? I know one of the Sea Hawk disposals lists it as stripped of useful parts before being dumped overboard.
Could it be WM987?

I don’t think it can be WM987, as that seemed to be clobbered adjacent to the aileron.

It could have come from the ‘Tibby’ incident, but I’m guessing deck incidents similar to this weren’t too uncommon?

Its very difficult to tell if the jet pipes are there James – the image quality is not the greatest, but I guess they can be forgiven for that!

However, I don’t know if its my imagination, but I’m sure I can make out an under-wing roundell – can anyone else see what I can see?!!

Looks quite possible.

That’s a good call Nick, the damage to the inboard wing area seems cunducive to being involved with that incident.
I can’t view the pic at the mo, but are the jetpipes etc missing? I know one of the Sea Hawk disposals lists it as stripped of useful parts before being dumped overboard.
Could it be WM987? Edit, damage in wrong area, is WM978 more likely?

The image of the Seahawk is an interesting one – damage to the airframe looks minimal – certainly not as a result of the a/c crashing into the sea which would effectively have destroyed it.

If you look closely, the trailing edge of the wing appears to have been partially sliced – I wonder if this aircraft suffered damage as a result of a deck accident after which is was simply pushed over the side once stripped of useful parts?

It reminders me of an incident I read about involving a Seahawk piloted by a Lt Maurice Tibby RN who suffered a throttle jamming open whilst on deck. With brakes locked & tyres smoking he impacted a number of parked Seahawks before stopping. Several of those hit suffered similar ‘slicing’ damage as can be seen in the Seahawk image posted earlier in this thread.

Larger picture of original image now added showing ‘slice’…

Actually, for those that are interested, the incident I described is pictured here on our very own website:
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=53041

Seahawk image

Possibly off Malta?

The ‘modern fighter jet’ looks quite interesting too:

The image of the Seahawk is an interesting one – damage to the airframe looks minimal – certainly not as a result of the a/c crashing into the sea which would effectively have destroyed it.

If you look closely, the trailing edge of the wing appears to have been partially sliced – I wonder if this aircraft suffered damage as a result of a deck accident after which is was simply pushed over the side once stripped of useful parts?

It reminders me of an incident I read about involving a Seahawk piloted by a Lt Maurice Tibby RN who suffered a throttle jamming open whilst on deck. With brakes locked & tyres smoking he impacted a number of parked Seahawks before stopping. Several of those hit suffered similar ‘slicing’ damage as can be seen in the Seahawk image posted earlier in this thread.

Larger picture of original image now added showing ‘slice’…

It doesn’t look like a U.8 or 9 drone.
I’m wondering it’s an early Firefly Mk.I – III variant as it doesn’t seem to have the leading edge radiator extensions, but maybe these are obscured, or lost in the ditching.? Having said that it does appear to have the squared off wing tips of the IV on. Looks to be in reasonable condition.

There were a few Sea Hawk ditchings in the Med, including WM916, WM968 (Genoa harbour) WV840, WV849, & XE405.

Quite a few Firefly’s were used as pilotless target drones after being phased out of service. I think they were mostly painted orange.
Ross knows more about this than I…come in Ross !!

I would go Med as well for both aircraft – I can’t imagine there were too many RN Carrier Tours of the North Atlantic coast