Incredible moment Red Arrows pilot ejected from fireball jet
FLAMES billowing around him, Red Arrows pilot David Stark parachutes to safety after ejecting in the nick of time.
Behind him, a massive fireball engulfs his plane as it plummets to earth – and trapped inside is engineer Jonathan Bayliss.
The 41-year-old had no chance. He was killed instantly as the Hawk T1 crashed less than two minutes after take-off.
Corporal Bayliss had only just joined the elite group of engineers who fly in the Red Arrows jets with the pilots. It was the fulfilment of a schoolboy dream to take to the skies with the famous aerobatic display team.
Last night as colleagues paid tribute to Cpl Bayliss, Flight Lieutenant Stark, 35, was in a stable condition in hospital. These dramatic images of the crash, the first involving the Red Arrows since 2011, were captured by amateur photographer David Taylor, 50, as he watched the horror unfold at RAF Valley, Anglesey on Tuesday.
‘I was truly shocked by what I saw,’ he said.
‘The plane took off normally, its wheels retracted, but it then turned sharply, its landing gear came back out and turned back towards the runway at an impossible angle.
‘I thought, “he’s not going to make it”. The plane came about 70 or 80ft overhead, then there was a pop rather than an explosion and we could see a fireball.’
Mr Taylor’s images show how just 116 seconds elapsed from take-off to tragedy. He said he will be offering his pictures to police and the RAF to help their investigation. Tributes to Cpl Bayliss were led by Sergeant Will Allen, leader of the Red Arrows’ travelling support engineers, known as the Circus team.
‘He was so proud to have been chosen to join the Circus team for 2018 and, in being one of the
small group of engineers whose job it was to fly in a Red Arrows jet, had fulfilled a schoolboy dream,’ he said. Sgt Allen described the engineer as a ‘big presence’ who could ‘lighten up any dull moment or lift spirits’. His previous role with the Red Arrows involved leading those who replenish the jets’ dye systems – which create the trademark trails of red, white and blue smoke in their displays.
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson also told of his ‘deep sadness’ at Cpl Bayliss’s death, saying he was ‘an incredibly skilled engineer and held in the highest regard as a teammate, a friend, and a shining example of what the British Armed Forces stand for’.
Cpl Bayliss, from Kent, enlisted in the RAF in 2001, after working at Brands Hatch motor racing circuit. Before joining the Red Arrows in 2016, he was deployed to the Far East, Middle East and Europe.
Yesterday, Flt Lt Stark’s family, including his parents Richard and Jennifer, were believed to be at the married father-of-two’s bedside.
The RAF said all Hawk T1 aircraft have been grounded as a ‘precautionary measure’ while police investigations into the crash continue. It is thought the plane was heading to RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire where the Red Arrows are usually based.
The tragedy is the first involving the jets since 2011. In August of that year, Flight Lieutenant Jon Egging, 33, was killed in a crash at an airshow near Bournemouth. In November, pilot Sean Cunningham died after he was ejected from a Hawk T1 while on the ground.