The only basis for the rumoured shooting down of an Indonesian C130 I can think of occurred on the night that they carried out a paratroop drop on the Malayan mainland at Labis. At that time we (60 Sqn) were holding a very high state of readiness, with some 10 to 12 aircraft on QRA. There was no scramble that night, however, rumour control later said that Bukit Gombak radar had “seen something” but had decided not to react. Later still rumour control said that 2 Hercules had made the drop, but that there had originally been 3 on the low-level operation, 1 of which had not RTB and may have flown into the sea. The word was that an Air Attaché, when subtly questioned at a social function in Jakarta as to whether the RAF had been involved in any relevant activity, just gave an enigmatic smile and “made no comment”; mainly because this was the first we had heard of any possible loss.
I think this is probably the root of the shoot-down rumour; I was one of the QRA pilots that night and was in fact scrambled the following night, but that was a false alarm.
Last edited by NutherA2; 9th Jan 2007 at 13:21.