Colin.. Re your enquiry as to the Barnack crash, one of the sqdns aircrew I spoke to told me that the aircraft suffered from engine failure on take-off. It was fairly heavy and instead of levelling off and sorting out the problem, the captain continued the climb. The aircraft subsequently went into a flat spin. As I say, that's as it was related to me. As for Bob's abandoned take-off that was just one incident involving the brake chute. I remember going to work one morning and there on the runway about level with QRA pans was one very sick Victor. It appears the a/c came over the A1 on approach and the skipper felt for the brake chute switch.. which at that time was down to the left of his ejector seat.. and he must have inadvertantly operated it because the brake chute deployed whilst still airborne and the a/c thumped down onto the runway causing mega-damage. Again.. just what I was told. I know the a/c was dismantled and taken away and I believe it came back into service. Not sure but it might have been XM715..
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