Catalogue of crashes and accidents haunts warbird

SINCE the F3 version of the Tornado - the version which predates the GR4 - was introduced by the RAF in 1986, there have been 16 recorded crashes in the UK, six of them in Scotland.

1994: An RAF Tornado crashed at Glen Ogle, killing the pilot and navigator. They had been on a routine training flight from RAF Marham in Norfolk when the accident happened.

1999: An RAF Tornado ditched in the North Sea, narrowly missing the Torness nuclear plant, near Dunbar, during a low-level night exercise.

2003: The crew of an RAF Tornado were forced to make a 200mph crash-landing at RAF Leuchars after the undercarriage on the fighter malfunctioned.

2005: Two airmen were rescued after they ejected from an RAF Tornado seconds before the jet crashed into the North Sea.

2009: Two man crew of a Tornado F3 are killed after it crashed into the side of a mountain on in Glen Kinglas, Argyll, on a low-level training mission. An inquiry concludes it had "insufficient room" to turn before it crashed.

27 January, 2011: Two RAF crewmen eject from their blazing Tornado before it crashed into the sea six miles north-west of the former Rubha Reidh lighthouse near Gairloch.