# Tailfin from F-14 washes ashore in Ireland!



## evangilder (May 6, 2006)

Interesting mystery...

http://www.irishexaminer.com/irishe...qm=ireland-qqqa=ireland-qqqid=2683-qqqx=1.asp


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## syscom3 (May 7, 2006)

Untill its authenticated as a F14 tailfin, then I'd say its someones idea of a joke.


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## Gnomey (May 7, 2006)

I would agree syscom, until it is verified, I would take it with a pitch of salt...


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## lesofprimus (May 7, 2006)

Strange things have been washing ashore for millenia.... 

As a matter of fact, whilst doing some beach recon in Kuwait many moons ago, my swim buddy and I came across three 50 gallon drums.... Thought to be some sort of homemade bombs, we had EOD come in and open them up....

Turns out there were 3 young men inside them....


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## Nonskimmer (May 7, 2006)

lesofprimus said:


> Turns out there were 3 young men inside them....


Lovely. 

As for the F-14 thing, can a Tomcat maintain enough control with just one fin? If it actually broke off of one, you'd think the whole thing might've thundered in, wouldn't you?


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## pbfoot (May 7, 2006)

in the same vein as Les's barrel people
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian builders who drank their way to the bottom of a huge barrel of rum while renovating a house got a nasty surprise when a pickled corpse tumbled out of the empty barrel, a police magazine website reported.

According to online magazine www.zsaru.hu, workers in Szeged in the south of Hungary tried to move the barrel after they had drained it, only to find it was surprisingly heavy and were shocked when the body of a naked man fell out.

The website said that the body of the man had been shipped back from Jamaica 20 years ago by his wife in the barrel of rum in order to avoid the cost and paperwork of an official return.

According to the website, workers said the rum in the 300-litre barrel had a "special taste" so they even decanted a few bottles of the liquor to take home.



The wife has since died and the man was buried in a proper grave.


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## Nonskimmer (May 7, 2006)

Aww, Jesus! Gross! Yuck!!


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## Gnomey (May 7, 2006)

Now that was horrible...


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## lesofprimus (May 7, 2006)

Maybe, but Im sure it tasted good....


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## wmaxt (May 7, 2006)

Nonskimmer said:


> Lovely.
> 
> As for the F-14 thing, can a Tomcat maintain enough control with just one fin? If it actually broke off of one, you'd think the whole thing might've thundered in, wouldn't you?



I'd think there would be handling issues but it would still be flyable. The Israeli's had a F-15 that in a collision had theright wing sheared off at the engine/wing joint - the pilot flew the aircraft home and landed (@ 250mph). All controls on a F-14 are integrated and should provide enough control input to allow a safe flight though a carrier landing might be hairy.

wmaxt


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## Nonskimmer (May 7, 2006)

wmaxt said:


> I'd think there would be handling issues but it would still be flyable. The Israeli's had a F-15 that in a collision had theright wing sheared off at the engine/wing joint - the pilot flew the aircraft home and landed (@ 250mph). All controls on a F-14 are integrated and should provide enough control input to allow a safe flight though a carrier landing might be hairy.
> 
> wmaxt


Hmmm, true enough I suppose. I do remember reading about that Israeli F-15.


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## lesofprimus (May 7, 2006)

If this plane can land, an F-14 with a missing rudder assembly can certainly make it back to a runway/deck somewhere...


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## Glider (May 7, 2006)

I hate saying this but everyone is assuming that the F14 made it home. Its more than likely that it didn't and the wreckage after floating around for possibly years finally hit land.


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## Nonskimmer (May 7, 2006)

Well, the article said that the US Navy was mystified as well. One would assume they'd have records of any downed planes from that squadron.


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## syscom3 (May 7, 2006)

Losing a tailfin is a major maintence event. Someone would have had to report it.

Plus the paint was still in fairly good shape. If this indeed was ana ctual tailfin, then the seperation from the airframe had to have happened within several months..


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## evangilder (May 8, 2006)

I do recall the article also said there were no barnacles on the fin either, so it would have to have been a recent event. There is always the possibility that it was a piece of an airplane that may have been dumped overboard from a maintenance crew.


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## evangilder (May 15, 2006)

Just in from AVWeb...


> A ten-foot section of vertical stabilizer from a crashed F-14 washed up in Ireland after apparently traveling 4,900 miles from the crash site off Florida. Squadron insignia and serial numbers were still legible and the Navy confirmed the part came from the Tomcat that crashed in 2002.


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## lesofprimus (May 15, 2006)

5,000 miles???? Talk about a message in a bottle....


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## Gnomey (May 15, 2006)

Yep, wonder how something like that (that should sink like a stone) managed to travel accross the Atlantic and end up in Ireland. I guess that it the next mystery...


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## evangilder (May 15, 2006)

Yep, that is odd. There must have been just enough air trapped in the supporting structure to keep in afloat. Amazing


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## the lancaster kicks ass (May 16, 2006)

> something like that (that should sink like a stone)



as long as it stayed on it's side it should've been alright, and they're pretty hollow inside aint they? did the F-14 have fuel tanks in the fins like the F-35?


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## lesofprimus (May 16, 2006)

No Lanc...


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## Nonskimmer (May 16, 2006)

lesofprimus said:


> 5,000 miles???? Talk about a message in a bottle....


Took the words out of my mouth. Unreal.


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## R988 (May 18, 2006)

So is it finders keepers then? would make a nice trophy on the wall and allow drunken pub talk about how you single handedly wrestled an F-14 into submission with nothing more than your bare hands and have the fin to prove it


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## Nonskimmer (May 18, 2006)




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## evangilder (May 22, 2006)

Almost like crocodile dundee?


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