Two Red Arrow jets collided mid-air off the coast of Crete today, the Ministry of Defence said.

One pilot ejected and has been taken to hospital, the second landed safely. The state of the two aircraft is not yet known.

The MoD said the Red Arrow team had not been practicing a routine but the two jets involved were taking part in pre-season training.

"We can confirm that an incident has occurred involving the Red Arrows whilst undertaking pre-season training at Hellenic Air Force Base Kastelli in Crete," an MoD spokesman said.

"One pilot ejected and has been taken to hospital, the other landed safely."

The identity of the pilots involved was not given.

ozzy72 wrote on Mar 23^rd, 2010 at 10:07am:



One aircraft is a smoking hole in the ground and the other requires a new fin tip and a tailplane .

Daily Mail so don't take it as gospel, but the pictures are of interest.

Matt

Tyler012 wrote on Mar 23^rd, 2010 at 4:24pm:


More like the Thunderbirds, since it's the RAF, not the Royal Navy.

Actually, it's a lot closer to the Canadian Snowbirds, if you've ever seen them, as they use more aircraft and use trainers.

Here is an interesting formation showing all four flight teams.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2008_Quebec_4-ship.jpg

specter177 wrote on Mar 23^rd, 2010 at 4:37pm:
That's a great shot.

I would consider the Red Arrows to be the demonstration team equivalent to the American Blue Angels, and my country's Snowbirds. They're all national demonstration teams part of the military. Anyhow, reading some of the comments underneath that story made me realize, there's quite a few of Red Arrows haters out there. That's kinda sad I think. The sole purpose of their existence is to entertain people. I think any of the previously mentioned demonstration teams are amazing.

SaultFresh wrote on Mar 24^th, 2010 at 11:38am:


I wouldn't take any comments on the article with any credence - the "Daily Mail" has a nickname in the service of the "Daily Hate"... 


They probably have as much understanding of the Red Arrows, the RAF, and the teams role as they do about particle physics; probably absolutely none at all. Like all the ones complaining how they waste money going to Cyprus to do all their training. Obviously these people fail to realise that we have an RAF base there anyway, and they get much better value for money training in the good weather of Cyprus than the dodgy British climate!

It's true, a lot of people don't know that some of these high performance demonstration teams are part of the military. Just like many astronaut's are part of the military, a lot of people just don't seem to clue in. It's almost scary.