I was a controller at Butcher Radar when the incident that Speedbird is talking about happened – I was there from Jul/Aug 78 to Feb 79.
As I remember, the RAF was doing a promotional film and shooting bits and pieces around Belize (Join the RAF and see the world – that sort of stuff). Someone had the bright idea of filming a Harrier landing on a ‘desert island’ – great recruitment stuff - and one of the Cayes was chosen (St Georges or maybe Ambergris come to mind – both had landing strips then, though I don’t think that there is one on St Georges now). The whole episode was to be filmed by a camera crew on board an accompanying Puma.
Again, as I recall, things weren’t really planned and it was a ‘back of a fag pack’ scenario – for example, no one had properly recce’d the landing strip to see if it was suitable (I think the accompanying Puma did a landing and someone assessed it from that as OK). Anyway, it was decided to go ahead with the promotional shooting and the Harrier duly did the approach and hover – to disappear into a sandstorm and subsequent crater that was nearly akin to the Icelandic volcano (Some of us managed to get to see the film – bloody, bloody funny, particularly as no-one was hurt). Obviously, the aircraft was stranded and all hell broke loose.
Ground crew were ferried to the island (had a great time with some American tourists by all accounts!) to sort it out. Major exercise as I recall which nearly resulted in the aircraft being scrapped. The whole recovery and repair took about a week. In the end, numerous rectification was carried out (including an engine change), the landing strip was matted to allow the aircraft to depart and a stripped down and very light Harrier was flown (by same pilot) wheels down, on a hop back to APC. It was subsequently replaced and shipped back to the UK for major remedial work (I think).
There were a couple of postscripts. The whole saga cost a lot of money. Not least because there was a US businessman stranded on the island for some days (couldn’t get airborne in his Twin-Beech 18) – as a result, he couldn’t get back to the States during an unexpected financial crisis in his business and he lost a fortune as a result – at which he duly sued the MOD!
In addition, the incident was just one of a number of varying degrees of ‘pigs’ that the RAF suffered over a short period of time. Three others that I can remember were a Harrier wheels up (Wg Cdr RAF Commander at APC); Puma (adorned in ‘Merry Xmas) landing on wrong side of Belize/Guat border and starting to unload Gurkhas – that caused a bit of a stir; and Bomb dropped from Harrier in trial not exploding and disappearing into jungle – that also caused a stir. There were some other incidents – not least the amazing story of the Pumas when they were evacuated to Mexico when ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Greta – but that is a story in its own right! And I won't relate my my 'pigs' with a Scout on a GCA that ended up with him being half-way back to blighty before I remembered about him (OK, slight exaggeration)
We RAF seemed to collect the 'Prick of the Week' award every bloody Happy Hour (any ex-Belize guys remember that carving - talk about feeling inadequate)