Part of the plan was a ground attack on the
disused RAF Calverley airfield. At 12.15pm the targets first visual contact was
made by the lead pair No 2 Instructor pilot who took the lead and commenced the
planned attack, his lead now No 2 followed him in then followed by the 2nd
pair, the second instructor being in the last aircraft. The lead aircraft exited
the attack with a 270° right turn, however the last aircraft was still on his
attack dive and they hit each other. The two aircraft involved were XV745 and
XV754, both Harrier GR.3’s
Both pilots were killed. The pilot of
XV745 was Flight Lieutenant James Downey, he didn’t manage to eject and his body
was recovered still strapped into his ejector seat from the wreckage of the
aircraft. The other pilot, Flight
Lieutenant John Roberts did try
to eject, his parachute being found near the Little Man public house at
Wettenhall.
An eye-witness reported to a Nantwich
Chronicle reporter shortly afterwards that he had seen “four aircraft flying very low and fast. They peeled off in twos and as
they were coming back into formation, one of them seemed to misjudge his timing
and a plane from the other pair hit him underneath. There was a great ball of
fire in the air followed by a terrific explosion.”
Other eye-witnesses reported that
wreckage “came down like confetti” and aircraft parts were spread over a wide
area. Several fell near the Little Man and others in the fields of Elms Farm,
Calveley. An 11,000-volt power cable was brought down and some homes were
without power for three hours.
The two pilots were later identified as
29-year-old Flight Lieutenant James Edward Downey and 30-year-old Flight
Lieutenant John Keith Roberts. Both were married with two children and from
Wittering.
The following was posted on www.pprune.org by
‘Martynw’, who was one of the first service personnel to arrive at the scene:
“I was on recovery duty for any of
our Whirlwinds from number 2 flying training school when we got a call that two
Harrier jump jets had collided near the Welsh border just north of us in
Cheshire and were down on the ground, I took a tool box and got into the
Whirlwind that had been made ready along with a Junior Technician (JT) Airframe
fitter. On arrival at the site we circled the remains of a Harrier the other was
no were to be seen, the piece of the one we could see was only three quarters
of the cockpit, the starboard side was gone and everything aft of the pilot,
including the back of his head was gone, so was most of the underside of the
cockpit as the lower part of the ejection seat was stuck in the mud, we landed
near the wreck without shutting down, the JT and I jumped out, the Whirlwind
took off straight away.
We could see two groups of buildings near us,
both about 300 metres away, people were coming towards us from one of them,
that turned out to be Elms farm whose land we were on, I could see a road next
to the other group of buildings so I sent the JT to investigate it, maybe they
knew where the other aircraft was. The people approaching me had seen us get
out of the Whirlwind, I was wearing a cold weather anorak which hid my military
uniform underneath it, my priority at the point in time was to secure the
immediate area around the pilot as he was still sitting in a live ejection seat
that was badly damaged, although it was very cold I took off my anorak so give
me some authority, and there I stood in shirt sleeves with my teeth chattering
by the time they reached me. I explained the danger the remains of the aircraft
posed and requested they stay at least 100 metres away, shortly after that a
group of policemen arrived, I requested that they form a semicircle between the
aircraft and buildings and keep away everyone, especially the cameras I could
see on other people who were now appearing, I fail even today to understand way
people have to stop and look at accidents, it is as if this ghoulish behaviour
will please their master.
About an hour after I arrived our Engineering
Officer arrived, I reported all that had happened up to that point expecting him
to take over, but he told me to carry on and he left, shortly after that a
Whirlwind from RAF Ternhill arrived, a Chief Technician jumped out and the
Whirlwind was off again, he carried with him a reel of telephone wire and a
phone, he told me he was an aircraft armourer and needed to disarm the ejection
seat but did not know this model so with the agreement of the farmer he laid
out the telephone wire from the farm to the wreck, and spoke to an armourer at
RAF Wittering twenty minutes later he gave the all clear and the pilots body
was removed. As soon as the body was gone, so were all the people, only the
Chief Technician and I were left, I put on my anorak as at that point I was
cold right through to my bones, I was also very hungry and thirsty as I had had
nothing since my breakfast before leaving my house to go the RAF Ternhill.
After about an hour or so another Whirlwind
arrived with a corporal, two airmen and camping equipment, the Chief Technician
jumped into the Whirlwind as they jump out, and the Whirlwind was off again. I
helped the guards set up their tent as it was now beginning to get dark, then a
Land Rover came bouncing across the field driver by the JT who had arrived with
me, where have you been and where did you get the vehicle? I asked him, he
explained that the buildings I had sent him to, to find out about the other
aircraft was a pub called The Little Man and someone in the pub had loaned him
the vehicle to look for the other aircraft as I had told him too. This
enthusiastic young airman had drawn a map of the Cholmondeston area and plotted
on it all the places where he had found pieces of aircraft, he also informed me
that dozens of medical staff where combing the area to look for pieces of the
other pilots body as his aircraft had blown to pieces, and they had stopped for
the night and were going to stay at RAF Ternhill, so he had come to get me, so
him and I could get a lift home.
At home I sat in my kitchen and cried my eyes
out and I could still smell his cooked body, and that smell stayed with me for
quite a few days. The next day the newspapers came out with a picture of the
wreck with the pilot still in it, I was very angry, as the only photographs
taken, were taken by the police, so one of them had sold it to the papers, the
papers also said that the aircraft was on fire, but I think the civilians
reporting this mistook the engine exploding as a fire, I saw no evidence of the
pilot being burnt, he had most defiantly been very hot but not burnt, my angry
was still boiling when I got to work and immediately went to our Engineering
Officer to tell him what I thought of the money grabbing policeman and the
ghoulish behaviour of the news people, who in my opinion had no respect for a
fallen soldier or his family, I told him that I was now glad that I had
resigned from the RAF and was leaving the country of my birth.”
Below is a copy of the press cutting
from the Nantwich Chronicle:-
