F-111 fleet grounded

July 19, 2006

AN investigation into Australia's F-111s begins today after the 26-strong fleet was grounded following an emergency landing in Brisbane by one of the ageing strike bombers.
The aircraft made a belly landing at the RAAF's Amberley base west of Brisbane about 2.10pm (AEST) yesterday after losing a wheel on takeoff.

After circling the air base near Ipswich for almost three hours to burn off excess fuel, the jet came into land, creating a plume of sparks as it slid on its belly along the tarmac.

The 29-year-old pilot had only graduated from the F-111 training course two weeks ago, but his 32-year-old crew member is considered one of the most experienced F-111 navigators.

Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said the grounding of the F-111 fleet was necessary to ensure there was nothing structurally wrong with the planes.

Air Marshall Geoff Shepherd said it was the first time a wheel had ever fallen off an F-111 in the 30-year flying history of the planes in Australia.

He said there were still no clues as to why the wheel fell off as the jet took off on a routine flight to Tenterfield in northern NSW.

RAAF Amberley's Group Captain Leo Davies believed it may only take weeks for the investigation to be completed.

"Defence's flying safety investigators, Boeing - as the primary contractor for F111 maintenance - and a Melbourne-based team of engineers will head the investigation," he said.

"They will determine what happened and also assess how much work needs to be done and the time frame to get the aircraft back in the air again.

"They should make an assessment over the next few weeks."

Eight F-111s have crashed since they began operating in Australia in the 1970s, killing 10 crew.

Damn good bit of flying by a young flying officer who had only just finished his training for the F-111

damn right, thats class

Theres been some great footage on the TV.
Amazing piece of flying.

Thats some damn low flying, I know that they are low altitude bombers... but this is taking it too far.


Pilot and navigator high five after landing


6 Squadron Pilot, Flying Officer P. Komar
I Squadron Navigator, Flight Lieutenant M. Warner
Standing in front of RF-111C aircraft they successfully landed with the wheels up after losing a main wheel on take off.

Man, he set that plane down so lightly that it will probably be back in service in a week.

When will they get their F-35s?

When will they get their F-35s?

When they're in production. They still aren't in production yet.
It's still a point of contention as to if they'll ever go into full scale production.

Anyway, I don't expect that the F-111 will be out of service to soon. They may have old airframes, but so do the B-52's. And they really are an outstanding long range low altitude bomber.... it gives us the ability to strike at our near North neighbours with ease.... if the need arose.

They just look so....sexy.

The planes fyi

I saw on History Channel that some 52s have been flown by three generations. Amazing.