Sparks fly at Lakenheath "Sniper 12"

[nigelblake]

McDonnell Douglas F15E Strike Eagle 92-0364 landing in a cloud of sparks, the sparks are from the arrester hook scraping along the runway. Very glad to hear from the crew, they are fine and will have a set of pictures of todays "fun" heading their way!
Just 2 from the sequence for now!


Hydraulics failure at Lakenheath by Nigel Blake, 2 million views Thankyou!, on Flickr


Sparks fly at Lakenheath! by Nigel Blake, 2 million views Thankyou!, on Flickr

[Ian A.S.]

Brilliant , what a catch and terrific quality , thanks for sharing Nigel

Ian Scaife

[DanBeeden]

Beautifully caught - one for their logbooks for sure!

[quail]

Hi Nigel,

Was nice to meet and talk to you at Lakenheath yesterday with the F-15E sparks!!

Good shots and thanks for sharing.

Now I'm back home.

Cheers mate,

Henry

Malta.

[nigelblake]

Many thanks!
Good to meet you too Henry, glad you made it back to Malta without delays!

[Stu]

Nice catch Nigel

[Stonefaction]

Prefer the first one, but they are both cracking shots, Nigel. As usual.

[Blackbird]

Superbly caught Nigel

Andy

[stevebrodie]

Great Shots, why the hook down - is it standard practice?

[LN Strike Eagle]

Great Shots, why the hook down - is it standard practice?

Not standard, pilot must have called an in-flight emergency for a bird strike or similar.

Terrific shots though Nigel, number 2 especially.

[nigelblake]

It was indeed an IFE due to a hydraulics failure, they took the wire at the 2500 feet marker when the nose wheel was on the ground, the angle of attack when flaring is too high and catching the cable would result in the nose slamming down hard on the runway possibly causing damage to the jet and/or crew!
Both the pilot an WSO are fine and have a full set of these images!

[umea4]

Brilliantly caught - and an interesting story as well.

Anthony.

[redbearing]

interesting shots mate, great set as always It had to be you catch the sparks, been many months since our paths have crossed, back in the UK for a few weeks, perhaps we could meet up? keep em coming terrific action shots

robert

[blackcat]

Good catch Nigel.
Mark.

[Arno 01]

Nice shooting and a great catch Nigel.

[rv8tor]

First one for me,a real gem and bet the crew are well chuffed with it,
Regards Jay

[dakota]

Very nice picture man.