Originally Posted by
Jackonicko
I have read, enjoyed and inwardly digested it, Nutty!
But that's a great shout - the Canberra tale is really interesting, and White tells it really well.
He concludes that the PR9s never got any further than Belize, before the mission was cancelled.
But Jon Snow swears blind that he (and his cameraman, a well known aircraft spotter) saw two PR9s at Punta Arenas during the war........
Could that simply be a case of poor aircraft recognition? The claim from the Duncan Campbell New Statesman article was that the sighting was at Santiago, Chile.
The same precautions were not, however, in force at Santiago airport in mid-May, where ITN reporter Jon Snow saw two Canberras in Chilean markings, amongst a group of military aircraft including heavy US Air Force transports.
New Statesman article at following link.
https://www.duncancampbell.org/PDF/t...connection.pdf
At distance and in amongst other aircraft I suspect that Chilean Air Force A-37 Dragonfly were mistaken for Canberras.
The combination of the tail/tail planes and the under wing stores/tip tanks could result in that mistake. The A-37 also has a pop up canopy. At distance it could be mistaken for a raised
PR.9 canopy?
Links to Chilean Air Force A-37 pics.
https://www.airliners.net/photo/Chil...318E/1643483/L
https://www.airliners.net/photo/Chil...318E/1371106/L
Link to Chilean Air Force Canberra
PR.9
https://www.airliners.net/photo/Chil...a-PR9/327707/L
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_A-37_Dragonfly