Scotland: Two Aircrew Die in Low Flying Incident
The dangerous practice of military low flying has once again claimed lives following an RAF crash in Scotland.
Two RAF crewmen were killed after a Tornado F3 jet crashed during a training flight in at Glen Kinglass, Argyll today.
The Tornado F3 is an obsolescent aircraft which it currently being replaced by new Typhoon fighters in the RAF. The deficiencies of the aircraft were recognised some years ago when upgrades designed to keep it in service until 2010 were put in train
No civilians were hurt in the latest accident but there were reports of a fire at the crash site and this can lead to considerable contamination of the area for miles around the site with potentially carcinogenic fibres produced when carbon fibre in the airframe is dispersed. It is understood that fire-fighters attending the crash took specialised equipment to the site and the event would be subject to RAF post crash management techniques.
The latest crash is one of many involving RAF Tornados some variants of which are being operated past there `sell-by' date.
Large numbers of RAF aircrew have died in training exercises and approx. 20 of the aircraft have been lost in training for each decade of service since it was introduced in the early 1980s.
Related article about pollution problem at military crash sites here:
Also on the older Celtic News archive at:
J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League
02/07/09
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