Donald Campbell - Death

Death

At dawn on 4 January 1967, Campbell and his team felt weather and lake conditions were suitable for an attempt to break his existing record. By 8.45am. Bluebird had completed a north-south run at an average of 297.6 mph (478.9 km/h), and a peak speed of 315 mph (507 km/h). Campbell used a new water brake to slow K7 from approximately 220 mph (350 km/h). Instead of refuelling and waiting for the wash of this run to completely subside, Campbell decided to make the return run immediately, to beat it before it had been reflected back onto the course. This was a normal option that Campbell had available to him when operating Bluebird on high speed runs. The second run was even faster; as K7 passed the start of the measured kilometre, she was travelling at over 320 mph (510 km/h). However her stability had begun to break down as she travelled at speed she had never achieved before, and the front of the boat started to bounce out of the water on the starboard side. 600 meters from the end of the measured kilometre, K7 lifted from the surface and after about 1.5 seconds, gradually lifted from the water at an ever increasing angle, before she took off at a 90-degree angle to the water surface. She somersaulted and plunged back into the lake, nose first and biased towards the left side. The impact broke Bluebird forward of the air intakes where Campbell was sitting, the forward 8 feet of the boat shattering off instantly while the air intakes tripped the boat over into a cartwheel. The main hull came to a rest and sank immediately. The official report stated Campbell was killed when Bluebird K7 flipped and disintegrated at a speed in excess of 300 mph (480 km/h).

Campbell's last words on his final run were, via radio intercom:

'Pitching a bit down here...Probably from my own wash...Straightening up now on track...Rather close to Peel Island...Tramping like mad...er... Full power...Tramping like hell here... I can't see much and the water's very bad indeed...I can't get over the top...I'm getting a lot of bloody row in here...I can't see anything...I've got the bows out...I'm going!....(grunt)'

The cause of the crash has been attributed to Campbell not waiting to refuel after doing a first run of 297.6 mph (478.9 km/h) and hence the boat being lighter, and also the wash caused by his first run and made much worse by the use of the water brake. However, the area in the centre of the course, where Bluebird was travelling at peak speed on her return run was calm, and not disturbed by the wash from the first run, which had not had time to be reflected back on the course. The fuel tank was in approximately the same position as K7's centre of gravity, and therefore had little impact on the boat's weight distribution.

Another possible cause was a cut-out of the jet engine caused by fuel starvation. The configuration of K7 at high speed meant that the thrust of the jet engine provided a downward pressure at the bows of the boat. K7 was operating at her absolute limit in terms of a nose-up pitching angle of 6'. A sudden loss of power caused by an interruption to fuel flow would mean that this downthrust was lost and K7's bows would have risen above the 6' safe limit. Some evidence for this last possibility may be seen in film recordings of the crash - as the nose of the boat climbs and the jet exhaust points at the water surface no disturbance or spray can be seen at all.

On 28 January 1967 Campbell was posthumously awarded the Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct For courage and determination in attacking the world water speed record.