I have been today at my airfield, with Ania.
When we drove in via perimeter road, I remarked: “hey, look the hunter is out”.
It was sitting on a tarmac getting ready for startup. Had a curious look around the cockpit, not seeing the pilot.
When we got to the squadron, Ania went about her ladies business and I watched him take off, and thought to my self – how cool is that we have jets at the field, taking the sounds in.
The preflight routine went without issues, and we flown with Ania to Eastbourne, Seaford to see white cliffs.
At one point while flying, heard on the radio in exchange between ATC and one a/c, that Shoreham is closed.
Reason – because of some crash – no more other information, this is nothing unusual, from time to time a/c land badly and they close the runway, was my train of thought.
After the flight, we got to the Squadron, surprised to see so few people around.
In the crew room, John, the fueller sadder than usual, “have you seen this”, shows me a video of a crash.
I see a hunter falling out of the sky, a connection appears in my mind.
“is it … one of ours..” I ask.
“yes…”