Mid-air collision over Bad Laer
Royal Air Force Hawker Siddeley Harrier and German Air Force Lockheed F-104 Starfighter · Mid-air collision
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 1
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Military
Aircraft 1 · Hawker Siddeley Harrier
- Aircraft type
- Hawker SIDDELEY HARRIER
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- Unknown
- Operator
- Royal Air Force
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gütersloh AirportTo not recorded
Aircraft 2 · Lockheed F-104 Starfighter
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed F-104
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- 683D-7416
- Operator
- German Air Force
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Not stated
- Survivors
- 1
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Not stated
- Route
- From Fürstenfeldbruck Air BaseTo Eggebek Air Base
Approximate · Estimated position: Bad Laer, the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
In the mid-air collision over Bad Laer on 18 February 1985, a Royal Air Force Harrier and a Starfighter of the German Naval Aviation collided and crashed.
Sequence of events
A Hawker Siddeley Harrier of No. 3 Squadron of the Royal Air Force from Gütersloh and a Lockheed F-104G “Starfighter” of Marinefliegergeschwader 2 from Eggebek Air Base were independently of each other on training flights on 18 February 1985 when the aircraft collided over Bad Laer around midday.
The pilot of the Lockheed F-104G still tried to reach the RAF airfield in Gütersloh; however, as the aircraft caught fire as a result of the collision, he decided to abandon it, so that the aircraft crashed into a field south of Bad Laer in Hesselteich, a district of Versmold.
The Harrier was smashed in the forest next to the Bad Laer waterworks. While the student pilot sitting in front and acting as pilot was able to save himself with the ejection seat, the flight instructor was probably killed in the collision itself.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugzeugkollision über Bad Laer” (revision 245835563, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Flugzeugkollision über Bad Laer
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 245835563 · 2024-06-11 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q27926297
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- de Wikipedia article "Flugzeugkollision über Bad Laer" (page 9571974, revision 245835563), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata coordinates)
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.