Not to be repeated!

[Guest Canberra Man]

I can't remember which station this happened at, but it has never been repeated! I believe the Canberra in the event was on a major inspection at an MU (Maint Unit) The pilots canopy had been removed, all detonators except the top seat det were out. It was break time and the first man back was an airframe mech who started to remove the air cleaner filter from the air circulation system. He slipped and to save himself, grabbed the det. handle, it fired, deposited the mech on the cockpit floor with only a broken wrist and fell back onto the aircraft doing quite a lot of damage. I think the mech was court martialled and got 6 months detention.

 

Ken

 

 

[Tomo]

Ouch!! Can't help but feel sorry for the mech though, 6 months detention and a broken wrist..

 

 

[Deskpilot]

Reminds me of an incident where a mechanic was working in the cockpit of a Hunter when he heard the Barometric Unit start ticking. Realising the seat was about to fire, he threw himself forwards and clung onto the instrument panel. The seat fired and embedded itself in the hangar rafters. He calmly stepped out of the plane, then collapsed. Subsequent trails/tests were carried out and no way was found that he could do it again without the seat hitting him.

 

 

[Thirsty]

Not the mechs fault!! The armourers should have safetied the ejection mechanism. I worked on Canberras when I first joined the RAAF in 1980 and any ejection mechanism was always made safe before any work was carried out.

 

 

[Riley]

Brings to mind a quiet Sunday morning in 1959 when I was in barracks nursing a festive 'big head' at an RCAF base in northern Canada when a sparkie, whilst performing a routine stray voltage test on a CF-100, despatched 29 rockets from the port wing tip pod out thru the huge closed cantilever hangar doors. As I recall, there were two rows of operational CF100's parked outside on the flight line immediately in front and not one aircraft was smoked by the rockets. Alas, both my hangover then and the subsequent destruction of brain cells since preclude me being able to relate whether it was the sparkie or the armourer (perhaps both) that carried the can for the episode. I do remember being impressed with the comparatively 'tight' grouping of the rockets as they perforated the doors from a distance of about 50'. Whilst it was the only rocket launching I was close to during my service time, it certainly wasn't the only 'Sunday Morning Coming Down'. Ah, the stupidity of youth. Merry Christmas to all. cheers Riley