2001 losses

12/02/2001 XW302 G-BYED T Jet Provost T5 Private During   a  sortie  from   its  home  base  of   North Weald the pilot was forced to make a forced landing short of the airfield at Eglinton, Londonderry, Northern Ireland after the engine failed while in the circuit. It came down in shallow water on the mud flats of Lough Foyle, the pilot escaped without injury. An RAF Chinook performed the recovery and set down the intact airframe on the grass at Eglinton
22/02/2001 XZ330 Y Gazelle AH1 671 Sqn Suffered a very heavy landing at Middle Wallop, Hampshire. Both crew escaped safely. Due to surplus Gazelles within the AAC it was not repaired, to Wattisham for G.I.
23/02/2001 XZ664   Lynx AH7 3 Regt Crash landed onto the airfield at Leeming, Yorkshire and rolled onto its side, three crew escaping successfully. Together with four other Lynx it had recently departed from the airfield following refuelling but had returned due to tail rotor control problems. On final approach, the tail rotor failed completely. It is suspected that a split pin had been left out of the tail rotor control mechanism during recent maintenance. This led to a nut unscrewing and the bolt falling out. Not repaired 
09/04/2000 XW200   Puma HC1 33 Sqn During operations in Kosovo it was been sent to pick up a patrol near to the Kosovo/Macedonian border. During its approach to land the Missile Warning System falsely activated and fired some flares. One of the flares scorched the clothing of a soldier on the ground and it was decided to evacuate him to hospital. During lift off the Puma entered cloud and control was lost. It crashed near Kacanick thirteen miles south of Prestina, Kosovo killing the pilot and navigator and severely injuring one of the four passengers. The wreckage was transferred to Shawbury
12/05/2001 WH588   Sea Fury FB11 Private Crashed onto the airfield at Sywell, Northamptonshire and came to rest inverted. The pilot was killed
31/07/2001 ZG509 80 Harrier GR7 3 Sqn During air combat manoeuvres the pilot lost control of the aircraft and the high G forces resulted in all of the pylons being ripped off the port wing, the fuselage being bent and the engine surging. He managed to regain control and landed back at Coningsby, Lincolnshire, with the left hand drop tank missing and a considerable amount of fuel leaking from the aircraft. To St. Athan for repair before moving to Wittering in January 2005 and finally Cottesmore. Rebuild was abandoned in 2008 and the aircraft was stripped for spares
25/07/2001 XZ363 FO Jaguar GR3 41 Sqn Crashed into a mountain in a remote location West of Eagle, Alaska while being flown by a 54 Squadron pilot during an exercise ‘Cope Thunder’ sortie. The pilot did not eject and was killed
19/09/2001 ZG922   Lynx AH9 4 Regt The Lynx was transitioning to take off at a landing pad in the Oman desert when it was enveloped by sand. The pilot lost visual clues and descended, hitting the ground nose down and with significant forward speed. It skidded along the ground and came to rest very close to another, parked, Lynx. The RAF pilot and other crew member escaped safely but the front cockpit and rotor head suffered damage. It was transported back to the UK in an RAF C-17. The aircraft had been taking part in exercise ‘Saif Sareea’ (Swift Sword) a joint exercise between British and Omani forces
28/09/2001 XX249   Hawk T1 4 FTS The pilot ejected while on approach to Mona, Anglesey for a touch and go shortly after taking off from nearby Valley. The aircraft came down at Frogwy Farm, ¾ mile from Bodffordd village. It crashed though a fence into a field of sheep, killing several of them before coming to rest in a wood. The pilot was taken to hospital having sustained slight facial injuries during the ejection
08/10/2001 ZD614 122 Sea Harrier F/A2 800 NAS Ran off the end of the runway on landing at Yeovilton, Somerset. The pilot ejected just before the aircraft slid into the river Yeo. After recovery it went into the Accident Investigation Unit here and was then transferred to St. Athan. With the announcement during 2002 that the Sea Harrier fleet would be withdrawn from service by 2006 it was not repaired
27/10/2001 ZD253 MA-363 Lynx HAS3SGM 815 NAS Crashed into the Arabian Sea after an Omani warship collided with the aircraft as it was hovering above the water. The pilot and observer had seconds to abandon their cockpit as it filled with water and rapidly sank. The men, based on HMS Marlborough, suffered minor injuries and were taken to hospital onboard the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious. The incident happened during exercise ‘Saif Sareea’ (Swift Sword) a joint exercise between British and Omani forces. The Lynx was dropping a dummy torpedo into the sea when an Omani vessel sailed into it from behind, catching the helicopter's rotor blades on its rigging. The wreckage arrived back at Yeovilton on 3rd December. It was finally dumped for spares use during August 2007
16/11/2001 ZA777 B Gazelle AH1 671 Sqn Crashed into a field just outside Bruton, Somerset killing the pilot. The helicopter had suffered a tie bar failure twenty five minutes after take off from a school in Taunton and was returning to Middle Wallop. The tie bar connects the rotor blade to the rotor head and failure results in loss of the main rotor blade. It was considered that this was a one off occurrence in the Gazelle rather than a manufacturing fault as in the crash of Lynx AH7 XZ650 on 22nd September 1994
19/11/2001 XW799 G-BXSL Scout AH1 Private Crashed at Wimpole, Cambridgeshire shortly after take off from Cambridge Airport. The aircraft experienced a partial engine failure and was force to land. Upon doing so the aircraft rolled over, with all the occupants escaping safely. It is thought that the cause of the partial engine failure was water contamination in the fuel

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