Anyone here remember 'That' 2004 Merlin Incident?

[HeyfordDave111]

Hi everyone,

Not seen this mentioned on any forum before, so i thought i'd ask their opinion?

We all remember the Turkish Phantoms having to return after takeoff on the Monday and letting go its fuel on the runway as the sick one landed, but at Waddington Airshow in 2004, on departures day a Merlin Helicopter (side letter 'L' ) came out of static and after receiving permission to lift off, proceeded in a rather 'boisterous' pull up and transition that caused , for some reason or another, a red smoke flare to be let off in the cabin. This smoke was clearly visible coming from the open ramp, and it filled the cabin being clearly visible as a sheet of red smoke behind the glazing of the helicopter.

The 4 photographs i have show a progression of the Green Merlin spewing smoke from the ramp, then to the cabin filling the observation blister on the port side, and as its alongside the cabin and cockpit are filled, and the 3/4 shot of it going away from me show all windows with red smoke. Cannot have been safe, can it?

Anyone know any more please?
cheers and stay safe.
Dave

[Stagger2]

Clearly some outrageous dream you had?

[HeyfordDave111]

yes, that would be it

[jingernut]

Why not just post the photos with the story?!

[phreakf4]

Not the same incident, but may perhaps be relevant, video clip of part of Merlin display at Duxford in May 2005

https://youtu.be/4tD83eLhpRM

[HeyfordDave111]

Not the same incident, but may perhaps be relevant, video clip of part of Merlin display at Duxford in May 2005

https://youtu.be/4tD83eLhpRM

Now, thats interesting and i'd say 'you've cracked it', but i have a small 'niggle regarding the smoke in the cabin and what looks like a central billowing of smoke from the rear. However, this could all be down to vortices etc, and i am certainly no expert on anything like that.

If anyone wants to see the pics (i dont have a hosting site that i can link to at the moment) feel free to PM me with an e-mail address and i'll send you the pics (scanned from prints) for your thoughts, or posting here, but i edge towards phreakf4's Youtube clip now.

Cheers
Dave

[phreakf4]

I should point out that whilst my video (and it is indeed "mine" as I shot it) shows why such flares were on board the Merlin, it does not entirely refute the possibility that a flare may have been accidentally ignited in the incident described by HeyfordDave111.

Whether we will ever find the whole truth is another matter.

[MikeH]

I remember the incident as I posted some images on here at the time. Within minutes of posting them however I was contacted by one of the team requesting I take them down as it could result in them getting into trouble. I took them down immediately and no harm was done. Red smoke can clearly be seen filling the entire aircraft and coming out of the open cockpit side windows.