I think this was in either 1978 or 79 - I'm away from my logbooks so can't fix it accurately.
RAFG had sent out a
PR team to shoot a film in Belize and the detachment commander KM decided to have a bit of the film shot over Caye Chapel's runway. This was a powdered coral strip with a hardened surface. A Puma was positioned off to one side for the film crew. KM came to a hover over the runway but rather low and the jet efflux ate through the surface and released the powdered coral, which was promptly hoovered up and jammed the reaction controls. A ' forced RVL' took place. Now there was a jet stuck on a coral atoll, stuffed with talcum powder, miles from help. OC ENG from Gutersloh was sent out with a very, very large local purchase order to try and solve the problem. A barge and crane was rented and the engine eventually lifted and changed plus the tubes blown out. Time was of an essence as the salt in the coral powder was not appreciated by the internals of the jet. A couple of weeks later, PH, one of the wing unit test pilots, flew the aircraft out.
The film crew had also filmed some of the spirited flying back at Belize airport, which caused some other problems back in RAFG.
The detachment commander had a difficult time in Belize, as he'd been leading a pair on FAC that misidentified a village on the Guatemalan border and orbited one inside enemy territory by mistake. The section of troops there panicked and deserted leading to an eventual diplomatic complaint.
An interesting detachment.