Navigator fell to his death as jet flew upside down after 'explosion'

A test pilot told an inquest yesterday how he heard an explosion as he was flying a military jet upside down at around 450mph, then realised that his navigator had fallen out.

Former RAF fighter pilot Mark Williams, 50, who lives near Grantham, Lincolnshire, said he looked in the mirrors of the RAF Tornado to check on colleague Mike Harland but saw “nothing”.

Mr Williams was flying the fighter-bomber upside down around 5,000 feet above Norfolk in November 2007 when Mr Harland fell to his death while strapped in his seat.

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The inquest has heard that Mr Harland’s ejector seat had not been properly fitted. Experts think it slipped when the plane was inverted, automatically causing the rear part of the cockpit canopy to shatter.

Jurors have heard that the seat struck the fin of the Tornado GR4, causing damage which would have prevented either of the two parachutes from working.

Mr Harland, 44, also a former RAF flyer, from Colsterworth, Lincolnshire, suffered multiple injuries and his body was found in a field .

The inquest has been told that Mr Williams and Mr Harland, who both worked for BAE Systems, had flown from RAF Marham, near King’s Lynn, Norfolk, to test the two-seater fighter jet .

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Mr Williams landed the damaged plane safely after making a distress call and was unhurt.

His flying was praised yesterday by Ministry of Defence chiefs and coroner Jacqueline Lake.

Mr Williams said: “There was a loud explosion. The air in the cockpit became mist.

“When I opened my eyes, I saw the mist was also filled with yellow debris, like loft insulation, which was rushing around the cockpit.”

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He said he slowed, lost height and turned the plane the right way up, then checked on his “friend and colleague”.

“I looked in my mirrors and I saw nothing,” he told inquest jurors. “I could see right the way back to the rear bulkhead.”

He added: “Once I realised he had gone, I turned the aircraft around straightaway to look for a parachute.”

Mrs Lake has been told that an RAF board of inquiry concluded that the cause of the accident was “the incorrect engagement of the seat locking mechanism on installation of the seat to the aircraft”. Board of inquiry members made more than 40 recommendations.

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Martin Lowe, the Ministry of Defence’s head of engineering, has told the inquest that the Tornado was one of the first of the RAF’s fleet to be fitted with new parachutes.

The inquest continues and is expected to end either later this week or early next week.