§ Mr. BaldryTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the safety records of the F111E and the F111A aircraft based at RAF Upper Heyford.
§ Mr. NeubertThe current safety records of the F111E and the EF111A, to which I assume my hon. Friend refers, are comparable to those of any combat aircraft in the158W United States air force inventory. There have been no accidents involving EF111A from RAF Upper Heyford and only one accident involving an F111E from RAF Upper Heyford in the 1980s. That was in 1984 when an aircraft suffered a bird strike while on a training flight in Scotland. Both crew members ejected safely.