Hello all again. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
I have new info about Ardiles and Gª Cuerva crash sites. According to the same source than my previous post, some parts from Ardiles plane were found 30 miles SW from Stanley what means (more or less), Swan Inlet and East Cove zone. That makes a south-north course of falling since the moment it was hit. The southern wreck were found in the NE of Lively island while the northern elements appeared in Swan Inlet zone. It´s likely that more pieces had fallen to sea at Choiseul Sound between both places. On 6th may an Argentine Army Puma and an Agusta A-109, landed on Lively island with an Army green beret patrol. They found burnt ground where the plane jettisoned its external fuel tanks but no other parts.
The news about Gª Cuerva points that his plane fell to sea in a position placed between Hookers Pt and Christina Bay.
About the calling in spanish may be various possibilities:
On the night of 13th june a Canberra was downed. Captain Pastrán ejected while captain Casado seems didn´t. Pastrán could get to land in his dinghy and was captured shortly after this. The plane fell to sea close to Fitzroy. Two years ago, a human bone from Casado's body found in the shore in 1986 was identified by DNA techniques. Did he finally eject? Did his body go afloat after crashing?
There were some other missions flown by argentine planes from 8th june to 13th june and many of them were flown in that zone. Perhaps the desperate calling was made by some of those pilots (for example I remember 2nd Lt Delllepiane calling in a desperate way to the tanker to refuel as he was running out of fuel after being hit by small arms when he attacked 3 Brigade HQ on Two Sister on 13th june. He could finally get it and came back safely. Ingress and scape route were however northern).
There were some argentine reco patrols from the ROA (Red de Observadores del Aire) in the zone that send info about air movements. I know some of them could be rescued and others had to surrender to british forces as there was no way to be replenished or relieved.
It would help if you could recall the date in which this call was listened.
The identity of the pilot seen hanging on the parachute:
In my opinion, and after listening Héctor Sánchez's testimony as well as Dave Morgan´s one, he is Lt Arrarás. According to Sánchez the order in the argentine formation when the advertisment to attack the Foxtrot-4 was made, was as follows:
Number one: Bolzán
Number two: Arrarás
Number three: Vázquez
Number four: Sánchez
Sánchez kept a paralel course to you on your left and remained unseen, so the interception was made in the third step of the formation. He saw you in his right. According to Morgan he wanted to down in first place the pilot that had hit the LCU. He was the pilot that had attacked in second place (Arrarás). But he then saw another pilot closer and in the left rear of the second one, so changed his mind and attacked him the first (this pilot, according to Sánchez's order, is number 3, Vázquez) . After shooting down him, then Morgan went for his initial target. This is the one that ejects. His body was never recovered.
Do you remember if the pilot seen by you hanging on his parachute, seemed to be conscious? According to Morgan he just saw him in an horizontal position and have doubts about it. Although some sources points to the contrary, Morgan confirmed that the parachute was not in flames.
The rocket launcher that R J Kinloch asks for, was placed in a slide in Goose Green and was used against british paratroops on 28th may. Exists a photo of this. Argentineans also placed a rocket launcher in a track that day. They were Pucara rocket launchers.
Edmund, did you advance in your investigations on "Plata" flight pilots? Musso and Callejo are both good candidates to be your fourth plane as scaped overflying Pebble island. Díaz remembers watching a Dagger flying over him after falling to land with his parachute. Captain Dellepiane (a familiar from the 2nd Lt I told you previously in the post) was the leader in the flight and have not info about his returning route.
According to Callejo, they saw two Skyhawks going out from San Carlos when they were ingressing there, but according to the timetables from FAA webpage the closer skyhawks to do that ("Jaguar" flight, 3 A-4C: 1st Lt Vázquez, Lt Bono and 2nd Lt Martínez), attacked theorically around ten minutes before Plata arrived, so it´s likely to be Sea Harriers and not Skyhawks what they really saw. May be you? Although the book I´ve previously talked about says that Plata overflown Port San Carlos at 11:07 and Oro was downed at 11:04, I suspect both times are wrong as Dagger´s missions from San Julián invariably lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes and were made without refuelling. And the same source, as well as others I have, put the taking off at 10:20 and 10:22 respectively and the landing at 13:00, so mid time is aproximately 11:40 and the most likely to be at San Carlos. The History of Argentine Air Force also says that Plata attacked with 2 CAP over Falkland Sound.
Estimated times at San Carlos of different flights that day were:
Chispa 10:40 (2 A-4B from Río Gallegos)
Nene 10:40 (3 A-4B from Río Gallegos)
Halcón 10:45 (3 A-4C from San Julián. Didn´t arrive the target and aborted when were 10 miles north from Dolphin Cape)
Azul 11:00 (4 Daggers from Río Grande)
Jaguar 11:30 (3 A-4C from San Julián. Returned with a 260º course)
Plata 11:40 (3 Daggers from San Julián)
Oro 11:42 (3 Daggers from San Julián intercepted over Pebble island by you)
Another doubt is about the place where Díaz´s plane fell. You say in the south of Pebble island as you saw it marginally exploding and crashing. So over land. But was this wreck found? Many sources point that it was C-419 but I now think it´s C-430 as there are some photos of a wreck with this number.
Puga and Díaz also says that Castillo´s plane fell to sea, 8km off shore, as well as Puga´s. But according to first page link (by TEEJ) two Dagger are claimed to be at NE of First Mt. Two years ago some human rests were found in the zone. Initially confused with Castillo´s they were in fact from Lt Volponi (whom some other rests were found in 1982). Is the second place in First Mt from the same Dagger (Volponi´s one)? Or perhaps is Díaz´s C-430 one? Did you see Díaz Dagger´s crash and where it happened? Many authors say C-430 was the plane piloted by Lt Castillo, but I think it was C-419. 1st Lt Posadas (Dagger maintenance responsable in San Julián) in his book claims that Díaz's plane was C-430 while C-419 was Castillo's one and C-410 Puga's.
I found this old article about one SHar pilot at Falklands :-)
http://books.google.es/books?id=itUDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59&dq=pilots+found+falkl ands+1983&source=bl&ots=WIPrGXrm76&sig=QdMaw0omPpS7DcsaPrc_L TyWLPU&hl=es&ei=XC9KTMW_C5mg4QbLzvCkAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&c t=result&resnum=10&ved=0CE4Q6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
Regards
PS: ES, I send you a PM
PS2: Do you know something about the circumstancies in which captain García's body was found in his dinghy at Golding island in 1983?
Last edited by jualbo; 29th Dec 2010 at 17:56.