If we had operated the AT way, nothing would have got done!!
I agree, JT2.
Some, even RAF crews with no relevant SH role experience, have absolutely NO idea of the conditions under which SH operated in NI. For us it was a real, operational theatre, effectively a war role.
Many was the time I stood in the mist and pouring rain in the dark outside the station armoury (no breakfast taken, because no mess staff were ever available that early), loading live rounds into the magazines of my 9mm pistol and my SA-80, wondering if today was the day I was going to get shot down and have to try fight my way out of a ground ambush. The job had to get done, people were getting killed, crews were getting shot at (and sometimes shot down) by small arms fire, HLSs were being mortared, large IEDs were common place, and in a few cases, GA missiles were used against helicopters. Our weather limits were "go and see". We flew in weather and at heights that would make most fixed wing pilots have nightmares, often in the dark. We seldom had radar cover because we operated 24/7 and ATC didn't; in any event we operated at well below the coverage of any radar head. We only ever flew at extremely low level because the job required it (ask Cazatou if he is aware of PK factors for small arms fire). This meant routinely flying at 100ft agl or below.
For someone to claims to have been the Group FSO to try to tie the thread into knots by claiming the crew were negligent by not taking breakfast in the officers' mess, is crass, absurd, a red herring.