XV 206 - Midair Collision
LL
I was in ATC at RAF Stanley when the mid-air occurred in about June 1985 and I heard the initial Maday call. It was a mid-air in IMC to the north and outside our radar coverage (max 80 miles with the AR1, but usually worked on a setting of 40 miles).
The other ac was a RN Sea King and as you say all the crew was killed. RAF SAR Sea Kings did find I think one body and some wreckage floating.
If it can be said in such tragic circumstances, it was very fortunate that Mount Pleasant Airport was at an advanced stage of construction and although not operational was able to accept a diversion. After some debate it was decided that the C130 (XV 206) would attempt a landing there rather than the narrow, slippery and short strip at Stanley.
The collision took out about 10 feet of the port wing, 100% of the aileron and had resulted in the loss of the No. 1 engine due to fuel loss. The wing that remained attached had major "tears" to within a foot of the No.1 engine nacelle. In a fine display of airmanship a safe (flapless) landing was made with no further damage and after some time an outer wing was flown in and XV206 was able to depart. It had been the MRR configured Herc with ESM pods on the wings so I guess that it had been on such a sortie at the time of the collision and that the two ac were just totally unaware of each other until impact. IIRC that they were operating under different agencies and were not on the same frequency......
All very sad but it could have been worse had the Herc gone down as well. I have some very graphic photos showing the damage....
MB