Telebrief umbilical chord

By Martin Slater LTF Sooty 1975 -83

I'm not certain of the exact year, but I think late 70's, I was a line Cpl on LTF at RAF Binbrook and the Station was on Exercise. To set the scene, it was a cold wet night, the rain was sweeping in off the North Sea, the Liney's were thoroughly drenched, and the Aircraft with their Pilots were dispersed around the airfield, fuelled up, armed ready to go.

Before the days of Secure Comms the Lightning used a Telebrief cable plugged in to the right U/C bay to provide the Pilot with launch instructions. The Telebrief cable was very long and coiled up on the edge of the apron and then run out to the aircraft, it was tethered by a ring set in the concrete pan and was designed to pull free as the Aircraft taxied.

One of our Lightnings was duly dispatched heading down the dark taxiway to take-off with burners lit, on this occasion sparks were seen dancing down the runway behind the rapidly accelerating a/c, Air Traffic were dispatched to investigate and discovered one very battered Aircraft Armed Sign on the Main Runway, ensnared by a length of Telebrief cable, consequently the aircraft was recalled and found to be carrying several meters of Telebrief cable looped around the Main Leg.

Subsequent investigation found that a Liney had a problem getting the telebrief connection to stay plugged in, due to the weight of cable, so he looped the cable around the U/C jack. The cable had snagged on the U/C jack which snapped the tether on the pan and the Aircraft dragged 50 meters or so of cable behind it, collecting an Aircraft Armed Sign on its way.
Fortunately no harm was done, but lessons were learned.