Aircraft - Aviation - Balloons - Helicopters
Jan. 01, 1966 - Lightning Jet Plane Crashes In Suffolk: An open parachute lies draped across the ground. Against a hedge, a few years, a pilot lies dead. And in the background is his crashed plane. It is the scene which firemen, police and aircraft experts rushed to yesterday after the plane, an R.A.F. Lightning jet, crashed on to a road at Helmingham, near Iswich. What exactly happened was still a mystery last night. But the pilot, from RAF Wattisham, Suffalk, ejected himself from the plane. Too late. The jet crashed down, careered across two fields and came to rest in an orchard, with one wing resting against the wall of a cottage. Its dead pilot was found only yards away, still strapped to the fluttering parachute which could not save him. The only person who saw the crash is a 71-year old widow, Mrs. Emma Sparkes, who lives in a cottage nearby. Mrs. Sparkes rushed out of her door when the plane came down. She collapsed, and was in a a stats of shock las night. The RAF did not name the dead pilot. They sealed off the road and said it would stay closed until expers have carried out a full
