On 7th January 1986 the crew on this 29 Squadron aircraft were undertaking a low level training flight over the Yorkshire Dales with the aircraft being
one of four flying low-level practice interceptions. During the exercise this aircraft began pitching uncontrollably from a 45 degree nosedive
to 35 degree climb and everything inbetween these angles. The pilot had no chance of recovering the aircraft once the fault had occured and
the crew were left with little choice to eject doing so at a speed of 600 mph at low level. The pilot made a very hurried ejection, making a
single handed pull of ejection lever with his right hand with his left hand still on controls. He fractured his left arm and elbow on contact
with side of cockpit as he went out and landed heavily less than twenty seconds later and broke his right leg on impact with the frozen ground.
The navigator ejected after the pilot and he drifted through the exploding aircraft's fireball which burned his parachute, he also lost his
helmet and his flying boots were burnt. He was seriously injured as a result of this and on striking the frozen snow-covered ground. Both airmen
lay in the snow for around an hour before being rescued. The aircraft had crashed at Walden Head, south of West Burton and not far from Buckden
Pike. Almost all of the aircraft wreckage was recovered in the operation that followed over a number of weeks and at that time it was the
lowest and fastest ejection in the history of the RAF. The crash investigation found that the most likely cause of the initial fault was a
blockage in the aircraft's feel system bellows and was following re-trimming by the pilot to take the problem into account. The blockage then
cleared leaving the aircraft's trim to suddenly change and become uncontrollable.
Five months after the accident the navigator was walking again. The pilot returned to flying nine months later and would later convert to fly Tornados.
After his retirement from the RAF in 2007 he turned to the Church, he is now pastor at Grace Community Church in Blackburn.
Pilot - F/Lt Ian K Ferguson RAF. Injured.
Navigator - F/Lt Steve C Williams RAF. Injured.
The pilot Ian Ferguson in the cockpit of a Phantom. My thanks to Ian Ferguson for contacting me in 2009 and for
the information he has kindly been able to tell me regarding his ejection. He and his wife run the website.. "www.graceccblackburn.com"
Small remains found at the crash site.
Further pieces of the aircraft.
A piece of the aircraft with the numbering "865", I am not sure where this was situated on the aircraft yet.
Two large and heavy pieces of the aircraft found on my second visit to the crash site.
After some failed trips to the area to try and locate the crash site my wife and I visited the area again May 2010 and finally
located the site. At the time I believe that I was the only person to have located this crash site and document it in the days of the
internet. I re-visited in June 2010 with air historian David Thompson.
