Hunter crashes onto Welsh Lake.

Jet river crash investigated

An investigation is under way after a privately-owned jet crashed next to a river on the coast of mid Wales on Sunday afternoon.
The pilot, Craig Penrice, fractured two vertebrae after ejecting from the vintage aircraft shortly before the crash.

Mr Penrice landed in the water, until he was rescued by an RAF helicopter after around 30 minutes.

Mr Penrice – who tests planes at a Lancashire base – was initially taken to hospital in Aberystwyth, but was later moved to Morriston Hospital in Swansea.

The Hawker Hunter F6A jet – a former military aircraft – was seen plunging into the Dyfi Estuary near Aberdovey at around 1515 BST.

The plane, which was the flagship of the Hunter Flying Club, was returning to the clubs from an air show in Northern Ireland.

The pilot was travelling alone.

The jet was embedded in a field on the Borth side of the estuary

Eye witness Martin Fowls was looking out over the estuary when the incident occured.

“I noticed the plane, heard a loud bang, saw the pilot eject,” he said.

“The plane carried on, veered straight up into the sky, then veered straight down and crashed into a field on the other side of the estuary.”

Helicopters from RAF Chivenor and RAF Valley were called to assist after the crash, and were joined by the North Wales Police air support unit.

The plane is now on lying on marshland on the Borth side of the estuary and accident investigators have been informed.

Mr Penrice lives with his wife and son in Lytham, Lancashire.

He works at the nearby BAe Systems complex at Warton, where he test flies Eurofighters before they go into service with the RAF.

Found Martin Bakers page on the Tie club now
http://www.martin-baker.co.uk/ejject_tie_club.html
mmitch.

Martin Baker present a tie to any aircrew saved by one of their seats. Must be a good repeat order for the supplier!
mmitch.

Guys,

a bit of a funny question really but is there any kind of membership into a club for guys that have had to use an ejector seat and survived.

Along the lines of the caterpillar club etc.

Just curious and get well soon to the pilot.

Apparently, the pilot of the Hunter is a chap called Craig Penrice, and is a project pilot on the Eurofighter Typhoon programme. Craig is reported to have spinal injuries (which aren’t really a surprise given the use of the bang seat), but the attached thread says he is / was expected to be moved to a hospital in Nottigham. May already have been relocated, but the main thing is, he’s survived it. Once again, thanks go out to messrs Martin and Baker… 🙂

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=91793

Thanks David and Alexis.

I have little understanding of the legal / technical side of things thats why I was asking about the ejection systems and thanks David you cleared that up for me. I also agree that if the aircraft has an eject system that it should be functional.

All I can say is, it was one of those weekends. Lets hope we dont have another one.

The owner is Peter Hellier. It was the flagship of the Hunter Flying Club based at Exeter.

Merlin – if an aircraft has an escape system fitted it should be functional . In the case of ejection seats my understanding is that
a requirement for operation is that the seats are live and regularily serviced in accordance with the permit it operates on.

Anyone know who owns the Hunter and any other details etc.

How often do private owned jets have live ejector seats. I thought there was some rule that meant only military jets were allowed to have them.

Not that I am trying to say that this guy shouldnt have had one I am just interested. I am glad this aircraft was fitted with a live seat and that he is ok. Personally I think if the aircraft was meant to have an ejector seat then that is for a reason and they should always have one fitted.

Regards Merlin

…just like to add it came from Exeter. Thank God for live ejector seats.

Have to admit I felt a pang of dread when I saw the title of this thread,thank god (and the ejector seat) that the guy is ok.
Anyone have any details on which Hunter this was?

Re: Hunter crashes onto Welsh Lake.

Originally posted by SR71Habu183
Thankfully pilot’s been rescued and is okay.

Thank god for that.

When I saw this message, my first thought was of that awful weekend two years ago. Hope this guy’s okay, and that we don’t have a media outcry…

thankfully no-one looks to be seriously injured. Any ideas on what went wrong yet?