Accidents and Incidents

Summary

With its long operational career it was inevitable that Buccaneers would be lost in accidents. The following are known:

It is a long list, but we must realise that the Buccaneer flew mainly at altitudes between 50 and 150 m. If something went wrong there was very little time to take corrective measures and the safest way to survive was to use the ejection seat. The Buccaneers used Cordite explosive cord in the canopy. In an emergency situation the canopy was shattered by the explosion of the Cordite at activation of the Martin- Baker ejection seat. It was a measure just to save precious split-seconds during a bail out of the crew. In most cases the difference between being killed at impact or survival was not more than seconds. We can only conclude that low-flying is a dangerous and risky business!!