The UK Royal Air Force has yet to decide whether to ground its Panavia Tornado GR4 strike aircraft for inspections, following a 14 November incident in which a BAE Systems civilian navigator died after exiting an aircraft during a test flight from RAF Marham in Norfolk.
A decision to ground the GR4 could be taken if it appears there are wider safety implications stemming from an initial board of inquiry investigation by the UK Ministry of Defence into the death of Mike Harland. An RAF spokesman told flightglobal.com: "This accident is being seen as an extraordinary one-off incident. Advice on whether there are wider flight safety implications is likely to be given at a very early stage by the inquiry team."
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© APG Photography/AirSpace |
Harland was navigating the test flight but left the aircraft over Norfolk, reportedly while it was flying inverted. The pilot later landed the aircraft at RAF Marham realising that his colleague was missing.
The aircraft's ejection seat and Harland's body were both found in a field at South Creake, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The RAF has an active fleet of 129 Tornado GR4s, according to Flight's MiliCAS database. Marham is the RAF's main operating base for the type, and is also home to the service's BAE-run depth maintenance facility for the type.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
