Crew eject in second RAF Tornado alert
Baku, February 11 (AZERTAC). An RAF Tornado crew has ejected as it attempted to land at its Lossiemouth base, two weeks after another jet crashed into the sea.
The RAF has confirmed the two crewmen ejected safely during the incident which happened shortly after 1700 BST.
On 27 January two crew members from RAF Lossiemouth ejected from another Tornado before it crashed into the sea north west of Gairloch.
That crew was forced to crash after the plane caught fire at 6,000ft.
The men involved in the latest incident have been taken to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness. Their condition is not known.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "An incident has occurred involving an aircraft at Lossiemouth.
"The good news is that the crew ejected safely.
"They are in hospital where they are undergoing routine medical checks."
An inquiry into the incident will begin on Friday.
RAF Lossiemouth, on the Moray Firth coast, is home to three squadrons of Tornado GR4s.
The Tornado GR4 is a two-seat attack aircraft, capable of delivering a variety of weapons and reaching a maximum altitude of 50,000ft (15,240m).
In July 2009 a pilot and navigator were killed when their Tornado crashed into a hillside in Argyll.
That aircraft was a RAF Leuchars-based Tornado F3 on a routine flight.
Aviation writer Jim Ferguson said the lack of information about the latest incident was creating anxiety among some in the Lossiemouth community over the possibility of the two crashes being linked.
He said: "We understand the aircraft was landing when something went wrong.
"We understand that [the crew members] are safe, which is the main thing."
He added: "I`m concerned that the MoD is saying so little.
"They obviously know what`s going on and I think we should have been told. Was it birds, was it possibly mechanical, because it is concerning local residents."
Meanwhile, the search is continuing in the sea off the west coast of Scotland for the Tornado jet that crashed last month.
The MoD said the search for wreckage was still under way and an inquiry into the cause of that incident was active.
A Royal Navy minehunter, HMS Blyth, has been involved in the search.
Following the crash, Stornoway lifeboat crew recovered some pieces of wreckage floating on the sea`s surface.
RAF Lossiemouth, on the Moray Firth coast, is home to three squadrons of Tornado GR4s.
The Tornado GR4 is a two-seat attack aircraft, capable of delivering a variety of weapons and reaching a maximum altitude of 50,000ft (15,240m).
In July 2009 a pilot and navigator were killed when their Tornado crashed into a hillside in Argyll.
That aircraft was a RAF Leuchars-based Tornado F3 on a routine flight.
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