I am a RAF Armourer, who between 2004 and 2007 was a Junior NCO at RAF Lossiemouth’s Aircraft Maintenance Flight. It was here I was responsible for supervising a team of 5 other Armourers, where our main duty was the disarm, removal, fit and subsequent rearm of Mk10A MB ejection seats to Tornado GR4A aircraft.
I remember that my whole team were particularly proud to have this job, we knew that we were the last line of safety the aircrew had if the worst was to happen. Which in 2006 it did, ZG711 flying out of RAF Marham suffered a birdstrike during a bombing run at Holbeach Range, both of the aircrew ejected safely and were quickly recovered to hospital with minor injuries. These seats had been fitted by my two Senior Aircraftmen Martin Adam and Terry Gimbert, with myself supervising, we had been the last team to carry out any major maintenance on the ejection system prior to the crash, and knowing that we had helped save the lives of the aircrew brought immense sense of pride to the three of us.
Knowing that we were the pinnacle of armament engineering, meant everyday in the hangar was worthwhile, even if that meant hanging upside down to wirelock the command eject selection lever, or wedging yourself into zone 19 to gain access to the jack head piston!
Keep up the great work!
