Hopes fade for missing Tornado jet crash pair

Air ground crew work on Tornado planes at RAF Lossiemouth. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA

Officials say a search-and-rescue operation to find two people missing after two Tornado jets crashed off the north coast of Scotland has become a recovery mission.

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 two people, who were taken to hospital in Inverness, before continuing to search for the remaining pair.

Fred Caygill, a Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokesman, said on Wednesday: "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."

On Tuesday night, a Ministry of Defence spokesman said the search had been suspended because of bad weather.

Aberdeen Coastguard contacted the RNLI for assistance at about 1.50pm after reports that the jets had come down 25 miles south of Wick. 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.

Wreckage seen being brought ashore by Buckie lifeboats on Tuesday night included a liquid oxygen canister and a flying glove.

Crew from a Buckie boat reported that two people were taken from the sea by helicopter and flown to Raigmore hospital in Inverness, although their condition is not known.

The first minister, Alex Salmond, said the Scottish government was ready to offer assistance.

In January last year, two RAF crew were rescued after their Tornado GR4 came down 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.

RAF Lossiemouth, on the Moray Firth, is home to three squadrons of Tornado GR4s. The GR4 is the ground attack variant of the Tornado jet, capable of delivering a variety of weapons.

In July 2009, an RAF pilot and navigator were killed when their Tornado crashed into a hillside in Argyll.

Flight Lieutenant Kenneth Thompson, 27, and Flight Lieutenant Nigel Morton, 43, died in the crash near the village of Arrochar.

Their aircraft was a Tornado F3 air-to-air interceptor fighter from RAF Leuchars, on a routine flight.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/04/hopes-fade-tornado-crash-pair

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