EXEMPLARY AIRMANSHIP SAVES HISTORIC SEA FURY.

Commanding Officer of the Royal Navy Historic Flight, Lt Cdr Chris Götke Royal Navy displayed exemplary airmanship when the Fly Navy Heritage Trust historic Hawker Sea Fury T20 G-RNHF (VX281) lost power during a display manoeuvre at RNAS Culdrose Air Day on 31 July, forcing him to take swift action and carry out a dramatic emergency landing.

Lt Cdr Götke’s quick thinking and skilful handling of a complex and potentially highly dangerous situation averted disaster, not only putting the aircraft on the ground safely and avoiding injury to the 33,000 crowd – but undoubtedly saving the aircraft as well as himself.

A witness on the display line said “I have complete and utter respect for the pilot for being so professional. It was a textbook forced landing in extremely difficult circumstances.”

“The aircraft lost power at a critical point in the display” said Commodore Bill Covington, a Trustee of the Fly Navy Heritage Trust. “Chris did a fantastic job. He only had 250-280 knots and couldn’t complete the manoeuvre as intended. He initially thought he would land in a nearby field but when he realised he didn’t have enough power to make it, he exercised superb judgment and landed the aircraft on the runway as soon as possible. 

Carrying out a successful forced landing in one of these heavy fast heritage aircraft is extremely difficult. It is hard enough to get it right even in practice – let alone from the middle of an air display. His quick reactions and calm decision-making protected the public and saved a rare and historically significant Navy Heritage aircraft.”

Lt Cdr Chris Götke (above) pictured with Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown CBE DSC AFC Royal Navy (95) the Royal Navy’s most decorated and distinguished Naval Test Pilot, in front of Sea Fury T20 just before he took off to fly to the Air Day at RNAS Culdrose.  Captain Eric Brown who has flown 487 different aircraft types, more than any other pilot in the world and also holds the world record for carrier deck landings at 2407, said of Chris’ skilful emergency landing “it was a pretty amazing piece of flying. There couldn’t have been a better person at the controls and the entire Fleet Air Arm community salutes him!”

For the complete statement from the Fly Navy Heritage Trust follow the link.

http://www.fnht.co.uk/exemplary-airmanship-saves-sea-fury.html