Minor accident in CFB Trenton

[Chaxterium]

http://www.windsorstar.com/news/Pilot+i ... story.html

CFB TRENTON, Ont. — A private jet crashed Wednesday at the Canadian Forces Base in Trenton, Ont., shortly after takeoff, sending the lone pilot to hospital with undetermined injuries.

CFB Trenton spokesman Capt. Mark Peebles said the pilot was a civilian who was flying the T-33 aircraft back to its owner in Fort Worth, Texas. He said the plane took off shortly after noon Wednesday but after it was airborne it had to return to the tarmac for an unknown reason and skidded off the runway.

"It went through a fence and came to rest just inside the airfield," said Peebles. "Personnel took measures to prevent contamination and possible fire risk."

The lone pilot managed to get out of the aircraft and was taken to hospital when emergency crews arrived. Peebles said the pilot's injuries are unknown, but he is expected to survive.

The military said it was investigating to find out what happed to the plane.

Peebles did not know who the pilot is or whether he is American or Canadian.

According to the website Warbird Alley, the T-33 is the most widely used jet trainer in the world. A two-seater version of the U.S. Air Force's first jet fighter, the F-80 Shooting Star, the T-33 is still in use around the world.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

Haven't heard any more news about the pilot and still no word what happened exactly.

[linecrew]

Picture of the former CAF CT-133 showing it relatively intact after going through the fence in this thread on the Warbird Information Exchange forum:

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/p ... hp?t=31030

[. . .]

Lucky no Air Cadets were hurt.

[just curious]

This is what I got from Facebook.

Hello All,

There seem to be a number of version of what happened with T-33 #648 (US reg N3648) at CFB Trenton today (July 15, 2009). In an effort to put incorrect information to rest, this is a brief as to what seems to have occured. I was there to photograph the departure of 648 so I can offer an eye-witness account. In relative brief, this is what I saw and/or know:

The T-33 was piloted by Col David Graben. Take-off from Runway 24 was approximately 12:12pm. At approximately 20' altitude, the left armament bay door opened. The pilot made a split second decision to abort the take-off and aggresively put the airplane on the runway with a little less than 2000' remaining. It appears the left tip tank, then the possibly the right tip tank contacted the runway. The left tip-tank split approximately 1/3 the way down from the leading edge, spilling fuel as the airplane continued to roll down the runway.

Col Graben, realizing the apron was quickly approaching, departed the tarmac to the right side of the runway on to the grass in order to avoid the ILS and cement pilons. The airplane did not appear to be slowing quickly and then disappeared from my view behind a fence.

When I reached a point on th eapron where I could see the airplane, it had come to rest approximately 1 metre from the boundry fence, between the parimeter fence and Boundry Rd, sitting in a ditch.

The pilot exited from the cockpit with some assitance from a bystander who, apparently, hopped the fence. Fortunately, and most importantly, David was uninjured. The status of the airplane, at this time, is unknown. Obviously, it has sustained some damage but it may be some time before how much and how severe the damage is, is known.

Thankfully, nobody was hurt or, worse, killed. There was no fire. The airplane was not destroyed. Whether it is possible that the airplane ever takes to the air again, I am not in a position that would allow me to speak to that. Time will tell.

Can't speak from experience, but a nose panel door opening would be like the nose door on an Aztec or 99 opening. Suddenly turbulent.

[Brewguy]

...we used to store duty free booze in the ammo feeds when returning from far away places so we took extra care to make sure the catches were in fact closed!

That's awesome!

[Rockie]

...we used to store duty free booze in the ammo feeds when returning from far away places so we took extra care to make sure the catches were in fact closed!

That's awesome!

Oh if you only knew...