Harrier Pilot Does The Martin Baker Fly By

[Bubblehead Nuke]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

On final approach you are in a nose up position and pretty close to stall speed. If your engine quits now you will not only lose speed quickly (due to the nose up attitude) but you will also be in the nasty situation of not having any altitude left that you could trade for speed which you need for a controlled flight. The pilot was all out of options here.

Exactly....

Landing is one of the most stressful time. As you said, you are up against the wall. You are at or near minimum control airspeed and no space to trade altitude for speed. Been there, done that. Got the tee shirt and the soiled shorts to prove it. Piper 140 on final with a loss of engine. Full flaps and downwind. It was NOT fun. I got lucky, I planted the main wheels about 3 feet short of the runway and bounced over the lip to the runway. Good thing the weather was dry and the ground was not spongy.

Back to the Harrier: I can guarantee you that this guy KNEW he was going to stuff the plane into the ground. He could have bailed at ANY time after the engine failure with a reasonable chance of survival. The fact that he rode it into the ground says volumes about his professionalism.

I have WATCHED U.S. Military planes go in. I have watched them go all the way in because the pilot wanted to insure that his plane was going into that space BETWEEN the houses and not into the house. My father was a Naval Aviator. I asked him in the past what he would do in such an emergency. He told me that he would ride it in to make sure nobody was hurt if there was the SLIGHTEST chance of it coming down in population.