Deborah Colman was left terrified when a pylon, used to mount items such as missiles or fuel tanks, detached from a Eurofighter Typhoon jet above Haisthorpe, East Yorks.
The jet had taken off from RAF Coningsby, some 66 miles away, on January 17. An investigation into the incident has been initiated by the air force.
Deborah said: “It’s absolutely terrifying. If that had been a few hundred yards towards us it could have hit the house or killed someone, or landed on the main road in front.”
She also mentioned the train line that passes the village a bit further away and the potential danger if the object had hit it. After hearing a ‘loud bang’, Deborah and her husband Shaun went to investigate the crash site where they found the metallic object surrounded by a small crater in the field, guarded by a policeman.
Deborah, who took a photo with her phone, said: “The policeman said ‘you’ve got to all move back away from it’. He was on his radio constantly, he said ‘they’re saying there could be chemicals in it or anything like that’.”
Later that night, Shaun saw lights in the field as ‘men in uniforms’ removed the item.
Deborah added: “I don’t know if they would have kept it quiet and not said anything if no-one had actually seen it. Things like that need to be out in the public, don’t they? Because it’s worrying.”
An RAF spokesperson said: “On Friday 17 Jan, a pylon from a Typhoon detached and landed in open ground.
“The RAF have recovered the equipment and are investigating the cause of it detaching from the aircraft.”
