RE: Message for sadtwat
This is my first posting on this forum and I only joined to comment on this particular thread.
I spent some time with the āBlack 6ā crew on the day of crash and I would like to add my comments to some of those that have been posted.
In one post someone heard from āsomeone in the knowā that Charlie Brown was due to fly Black 6 that day…. Before I go on here I would like to add that the 3 main pilots of Black 6, John Alison, Charlie Brown and Dave Southwood planned to have one last Display flight in Black 6. Charlie had his last flight on the Press day at Duxford. Black 6 was due to fly twice at the show. Dave was to display early on in the show and John due to do the last display closing the show.
What I have just stated obviously rules out the statement claiming that Charlie was due to fly Black 6 that day. Any way Charlie would have to be in two places at once if he were flying Black 6 because at the time of the accident he was flying along side Black 6 in the Historic Aircraft Collectionās Mk IX Spitfire TE566. (This was by far the best Dog Fight display that these two aircraft ever did)
As Charlie was flying the Spitfire in this routine, I cannot see how John pulled rank on Charlie for this flight.
As I stated earlier, Dave was due to do the first flight of the day, but as stated in an earlier post, the wind was out of limits for the aircraft. It was decided to cancel this flight and to try again later on. It was decided that the aircraft could take off in these conditions, but a landing would be out of the question. A decision was made to therefore take off from Duxford, fly the display routine and take the aircraft to Cambridge where the grass runway was into wind. It was therefore decided that as John was the Chief Pilot, he should display the aircraft and Dave would then at a later date pick Black 6 up from Cambridge therefore having his last flight in the aircraft.
As for the conspiracy theory going on here, I have no knowledge of this, but if anyone thinks that John did what he did on purpose is greatly mistaken. I doubt anyone in the warbird industry would damage an aircraft in such a way to ground it. Just because he was a high ranking officer in the RAF, it does not make him a bad pilot…. In my opinion he is one of the best and safest pair of hands in this industry and if I were a collector I would let him fly anything I owned. Iām sure that John spent a lot of time campaigning, as did a lot of people for Black 6ās cause. He must have been in a very awkward position. He was the chief pilot and at the time an Air Chief Marshall. He may have been able to use his rank in some way to sway who ever made the final decision to ground the aircraft but that would have been unethical.
John made a mistake and he admits that. How many people who post to or read this forum have made mistakes and not admitted to them?
Everyone makes mistakes…. Some people do not live to tell the tale…. We should be grateful that John and Black 6 are still here for us to see. The accident happened and yes it was a very sad day, but that could have so easily happened to any pilot in any aircraft. I am sure that if it had not been such a high profile aircraft and such a high profile pilot this accident would have slowly faded into the sands of time.
Letās all hope that there is another Messerschmitt 109 gracing the skies again over Duxford soon (and I hope I have the pleasure of seeing John, Charlie and Dave displaying it for us)
Philip Bradle.
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