Test Flying Memorial
"...and everywhere the
blue sky belongs to them
and is their appointed rest
and their native country"
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
| Date | 19/02/1963 |
|---|---|
| Casualties | Mr G.R.I. "Sailor" Parker (Hawker Siddeley/Blackburn TP), Mr Gordon R. Copeman (Hawker Siddeley/Blackburn FTO) |
| Aircraft | Blackburn Buccaneer S Mk 1 XN952 |
| Took off from | Holme-on-Spalding Moor, Yorkshire |
| Purpose of flight | LABS manoeuvre over airfield |
| Incident location | Holme-on-Spalding Moor, Yorkshire |
| Incident details | Aircraft suffered roll-inertia coupling when rolling off the top of the half-loop during a LABS (bomb toss) manoeuvre over the airfield. The aircraft went into an upright spin and crashed approximately 40 yards from the control tower. Gordon Copeman ejected at about 300 feet and fell onto the wreckage. Sailor ejected as the aircraft hit the ground. Both were killed. Following this incident, rolling out from LABS manoeuvres was limited to half stick. |