I was lucky enough to be standing right by the edge of the runway with a camera when this happened. The camera, an RAF K24, used 5" wide roll film, was originally designed for aerial photography, with two hand grips, a trigger, and a large crank for advancing the film. It weighed about 20 lb. and was not ideally suited to high speed action photography!.
This was not something I normally did. I was a pilot, not an official photographer, but I had signed out this camera to record the performance of a new towed-target launching system we were developing on the Trials Flight.
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Image 1
I
was watching this Venom land, saw its nose wheel collapse, and started cranking
the camera as fast as I could - so fast that the camera generated static shown
as lightning marks in this image.
Image 2
When
the nose wheel collapsed it forced the guns in the nose back into the fuel tank,
which ruptured. As it skidded past a few yards away, I captured the instant the
fuel caught fire.
Image 3
After
it passed, leaving a trail of burning jet fuel, I started running towards where
it was coming to rest, hoping like hell the pilot would be able to get out by
himself.
Image 4
Image 5
The
fire was hard to put out since the airfield's main fire truck was being repaired
and the only one available was this small auxiliary with a limited amount of foam
and CO2 extinguishers. Here you see the fire suppressed in a fog of CO2 while
the aircraft is being turned to point in a safe direction. The guns were still
loaded and the ejection seat still armed, so there was real danger of explosion.
But everyone got lucky, particularly the pilot and photographer!