On the subject of the attacks on police aircraft, I was never aware of a D Notice [or equivalent] for those attacks, it was a full news event but I think the Fairoaks one in particular caused some gulps in high places because of the people that did it.
And that is not to forget that there were earlier attacks.
In October 1976 an Enstrom F28 G-BDKD on lease to the Met was attacked whilst parked in the open at Elstree. The screen was broken and that is the point where air operations retreated to the safety of Lippitts Hill ..... so the comment is wholly relevant!
The Merseyside AS355F1 G-BOOV was damaged at Speke when on trials from McAlpines. The locals did not iike it interfering with their high speed driving between Liverpool and Manchester The screen was damaged and a fire set but although it was taken out of service it was not severely damaged. Certainly the screen was still in use years later. I think that was 4/1/89 , 36 years ago.
Last edited by PANews; 19th December 2024 at 14:15.
Reason: Additional words