Thanks Albatross,
A great story by one of the best storytellers around. I read that many years ago during flying training and listening to Al Maitland reading it just now reminded me of what an excellent tale it is.
20 years ago I was flying under radar control in thick cloud over south east England when the controller said.'Standby, I've just lost my screen.'
'Roger,' says I, trying not to sound concerned.
'I'll arrange a service from.....'
'Say again.'
Silence.
There was a scramble in the cockpit to find another radar frequency when the controller piped up,
'Sorry about that, total electric failure here but we've got power back now, avoiding action turn left blah blah'
Less than a minute had elapsed and I had a crew to share the moment with, but it brought back Frederick Forsyth's story.
Merry Christmas!