Jualbo,
Very many thanks for your contribution. This clears up a mystery for me.
Here is what happened:
Andy Auld and I were on CAP to the north of the Falkland Sound under the control of HMS Coventry and HMS Broadsword. We had literally just arrived on task from HMS Hermes so were quite well off for fuel (Relatively speaking!)
HMS Coventry and HMS Broadsword were were just north of Cape Dolphin.
A few minutes after arriving on station the controller announced that the force had gone "Air Raid Warning Red" and to stand by. Several seconds later orders to vector west at full speed to intercept inbound targets, strength unknown but believed to be three or four.
We increased speed to about 540 knots and dropped down to 200 feet over the sea heading approximately 270 degrees. The controller was giving us 'Bravo' control which is essentially range and bearing of the target and it was up to us to sort the geometry out and self position for the intercept.
At about 50 miles contact was lost by one or other of the ships but we kept heading and speed on the off chance of making an autonomous pick up. As it happened, contact was regained at about 40 miles and the B control continued. Andy led the left turn for the intercept and called 'Tally' at about five miles. I was in a fighting wing on his starboard echelon. He fired first at the left hand Mirage flown by Lt Castillo. This was Oro 2 in a formation of three Mirage V's. He then quickly shifted aim and release his second missile at Oro 3 flown my Major Puga. The leader, Captain Raul Diaz then went into a hard right turn, clearing his wing in the process, and was hit by my missile as he was turning through about south.
Now this is where the confusion arose. I was visually tracking him as his burning aircraft descended towards the high ground south of Pebble Island and wondering why he hadn't ejected. Moments before the impact several things happened. I saw the ejection sequence begin with the bullet pulling an orange parachute out of his cockpit. I heard the emergency beacon on 243 MHz. At the same moment a fourth Mirage flashed under my nose heading west at high speed and I called a break towards it to try and get another missile off. As a result of this I only saw the fireball on impact of Diaz' Mirage out of the corner of my eye and never saw his fully developed parachute. The fourth Mirage quickly out distanced me and it wasn't even worth trying a missile shot at the rapidly opening range.
We both thought at the time that this fourth Mirage might have been part of Oro but as you quite correctly pointed out it was pure coincidence that he was in the same piece of sky at the same time. I also recorded that that I had shot down "number 3" when what I meant was I shot down the third in sequence. (Actually the leader.) History has always credited me with shooting down Castillo who was the only member of Oro not to survive the encounter.
You can imagine my surprise when I discovered as late as last year that I had in fact shot down Raul Diaz and my delight in receiving several emails from him describing what happened from his perspective! I quote:
"I continued to look at the aeroplane of Puga to see if he had ejected but saw no reaction. (Apparently he hit the sea with a partially deployed parachute and spent five hours swimming to shore. He survived the ordeal! ES) In the middle of the turn I was hit by your missile. My Mirage began to vibrate terribly, the flaw mermaid sounded and the lights of serious flaws lit all. I was left without commands. It began to enter smoke into the booth and strong sounds. I attempted to eject with the superior rings but I couldn't reach them. I had to make do with the inferior ones among the legs. When the ejection began I believed I was hitting the water because the pressure was unbearable. Single memory two instants of the ejection, when I saw my knees towards the sky and when the parachute opened up. During the ejection I had luxacion of the right elbow and fissures of the 4a and 5a lumbar vertebra.
He recovered and was flying Mirages again four months later!
ES