The Mechanic Who Accidentally Flew a Mach 2 Fighter Jet

In July 1966, RAF engineer Walter “Taffy” Holden was running ground taxi tests on a malfunctioning English Electric Lightning interceptor at RAF Lyneham. With no qualified Lightning test pilot available and the unit’s closure held up by an intermittent electrical fault, Holden — an engineer with only light single-engine trainer experience — agreed to perform the low-speed runs himself. During one test he pushed the throttle past the afterburner gate and couldn’t disengage it, sending the jet accelerating down the runway. He narrowly missed a fuel bowser and an airborne Comet before running out of tarmac and pulling into the air.

What followed was a 12-minute emergency flight in a badly compromised aircraft: no helmet or radio, the canopy removed for test wiring, the ejection seat locked in inert ground mode, and the landing gear fixed down. Holden managed to shut off the afterburner mid-flight, aborted two landing attempts, and finally set down on the third using a taildragger-style flare that caused a tailstrike but stopped the aircraft with runway to spare.

An inquiry cleared Holden of violating any standing orders and credited him with saving both himself and the aircraft. The root cause was traced to leftover wiring from a deleted ground-test button shorting into the radio during acceleration. The jet, XM135, was repaired, flew for years more, and now sits on display at the Imperial War Museum Duxford.