[FlashDrive (Poppy)]

Originally Posted by erick

I remember the early days when a number of them fell out of the sky! I was driving the back road from Brisbane to the New England Hwy when I came across a mangled car body beside the road on which someone had painted "F111" Seemed funny at the time! (As I recall no personnel were injured in any of the F111 mishaps?)

EDIT - sadly, I do have to update. Seems 10 RAAF piolets and navigators have been killed in F111 crashes. Sorry.

As far as deaths go... and I won't mention any names out of respect....I personally knew and spoke to on many occasion while at Amberley ... 2 crew members who died whist doing a " low level " bombing run using " dummy 500 pounders " at Evan's Head NSW. It happened in 1977.....the aircraft was inbound at low level .... ground speed was approx' 500mph then.....the aircraft went into an inverted roll and crashed upside down into the ground.

Subsequent investigation to find the cause of what happened came to light when an autopsy done on the pilot .....they found Albatross blood in his lungs . It was evident the Aircraft slammed into a flock of Albatross birds at such speed.....the birds smashed the Cockpit perspex ( Aviation Grade perspex is extremely hard to break ) and slammed into the pilot's face, killing him and the navigator instantly. A good sized Albatross weighs anywhere from 4kgs and upwards. You can imagine what a flock of these would do to any aircraft at " high speed ".

And then there was Mark Fallon...( I mention his name as it was on TV at the time )..... a young man ... at the age of 19.... flying F111'S from Amberley ... his Aircraft crashed at Tennifield NSW sometime in the early 80's. I don't know the cause of that accident.
He was, because of his age, was known as the " FASTEST TEENAGER " in the world.