Pilot And Passenger Escape Unscathed

A US-built Lockheed T-33, perhaps the best-known military training aircraft in the world, has crashed on takeoff from the Cambridge Airport in England Wednesday. The aircraft came to rest near the Imperial War Museum Duxford.

A museum spokesman told the BBC the pilot and passenger were positioning the jet for an airshow at another airfield.

East of England Ambulance's operations manager, Sue Pateman told the BBC, "The plane came down approximately a mile to the west of the airfield."

Witnesses said the privately-owned aircraft clipped a tree on takeoff and somersaulted into the ground. Miraculously, both occupants crawled out of the wreckage before it burst into flames. Although neither was seriously injured, one accepted a ride to a hospital.

The T-33 is a two-seat version of the P-80 Shooting Star, an early combat jet fighter which first saw combat during the Korean War. Already obsolete as an air-to-air weapon (compared to the MiG 15) the P-80 was relegated to a ground attack role. While the T-33 is ostensibly a trainer, it still serves as a combat aircraft in some countries (mainly in Central and South America) even today.

According to online reference source Warbird Alley, there are approximately 50 privately-owned T-33 aircraft still flying, mostly in the US.

FMI: http://duxford.iwm.org.uk/, www.warbirdalley.com