Ejection caught on tape.
The cockpit audio you can find below in the form of video with transcript was recorded in 1975, during a flight that ended with the ejection of a pilot and a WSO (Weapon System Officer) out of a U.S. Air Force F-4D Phantom, about 80 miles off the coast of England. It was uploaded to Youtube with some background photo by the son of the pilot who says: “Both my dad and his navigator were rescued […]”
The recording starts with “TREST 11” a flight of three Phantom jet performing air-to-air training before (at 04:00 min) one of the F-4s suffers a compressor stall.
Hear the rest of the adventure unfold.
Although the pilot of the doomed fighter jet gives bearing, range and distance to RAF Bentwaters, “Trest” was a standard radio callsign of the 48th FW, based at RAF Lakenheath.
Glad to hear your dad made it ok. The garbled part of the reply the the mayday on guard at 05:00 was Great Yarmouth (town on the east coast)
Rob
The radios in the F-4s of that era were crap, as this tape shows.
Your dad was a member of the 493 TFS based in Lakenheath. I knew his backseater fairly well.
This is great…. I’m so amazed at how calm they remained. I was on the edge my seat listening. Thank you for sharing. I am grateful to your father and the other men for their service.
HI Steve, Great job on the tape. I was also happy to see a photo I had not seen before of my late husband, Bill Bright
at 23.31 in the tape. Thanks for sharing!