RAF Tornado Jets crash: One member dies while two remain missing

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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According to RAF, one of four air crew members involved in a military jets crash in the Moray Firth has died and two others have not been recovered yet.

Officials have said to launch a recovery operation after two Tornado jets crashed off the north coast of Scotland. Four personnel from RAF Lossiemouth were involved in the incident in which the Tornado GR4s came down in the Moray Firth on Tuesday.

A rescue helicopter picked up and took two people to hospital in Inverness before continuing to search for the remaining pair. Of which, one has reported as dead. He was an officer from 15 (Reserve) Squadron, based at RAF Lossiemouth in Moray. Another crew member is in a serious but stable condition in hospital.

Group Captain Ian Gale, the station commander at the RAF base has shown “no expectation” of recovering the missing people alive.

A Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokesman, Fred Caygill has said: “The search and rescue phase of the mission was terminated at 7:04pm yesterday evening. We are now in a recovery phase. We stand by to assist the Ministry of Defence in any way that we can if required.”

About 15 lifeboat volunteers joined the rescue operation in boats from Wick, Invergordon and Buckie. The boats headed for the Beatrice oil field area supported by a helicopter from Stornoway in the Western Isles.

First Minister Alex Salmond has asked to offer assistance.

In January last year, two RAF crew were rescued after their Tornado GR4 jet came down in the sea off the west coast of Scotland. The crew, from RAF Lossiemouth, ejected from the plane before it landed in the water at Loch Ewe near Gairloch, Wester Ross.

Prime minister, David Cameron paid tribute to the dead, injured and missing personnel.

The Ministry of Defence said that cause of crash not known yet.

A spokesman said: “A full investigation into this incident will carried out by the Military Aviation Authority, which will be an independent investigation looking at all the possibilities of what might have happened. Nobody can say if mechanical failure, human error, or weather conditions could have caused the incident when the investigation hasn’t even begun.”

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