Jualbo.
Very comprehensive post. Many thanks.
Thank you also, Pablo.
I will try to answer your questions in order.
I cannot remember precisely when I heard the distress calls on 'guard'. But I am fairly certain it would have been only a couple of days after the action.
The parachute was definitely not on fire but I regret I really cannot remember if the pilot was alive or conscious. I guess he would have had his hands on the risers if he was alert and conscious. This would be the normal picture of someone in a parachute and I don't remember anything different. It was only a fleeting glance for me. I saw him incredibly late and didn't even have time to react. The light was failing quite fast and there was a lot of low cloud and precipitation around making the visibility variable at best.
I haven't progressed my investigation with the 'Plata' pilots.
After I chased the "fourth" mirage for about two minutes in a westerly direction we knocked it off and Andy Auld and I reformed and went back to our original CAP station to the north of the Falkland Sound for a short period until we ran low on fuel and had to return to HMS Hermes. We would have been over the West Falklands at the end of the combat and the heading back to the CAP station would probably have been NE. We certainly would not have been seen exiting the San Carlos area.
The exact time of our action against 'Oro' will be difficult to ascertain. The 'D' onboard the picket ship would probably have kept a log.
Navaleye, can you help here?
I can confirm without absolutely no doubt that Oro 2 flown by Lt Carlos Castillo in C419 was flying to the left of Raul Diaz and was the first to be hit by Andy Auld's first missile. The aircraft exploded over the sea well to the north of Pebble Island. Major Luis Puga was flying as Oro 3 in C410 was on the right. His aircraft was also destroyed in an explosion and fell into the sea.
I quote from the extraordinary email that Raul Diaz sent me a couple of years ago:
"I was the leader and it took to Leutenan Carlos Castillo like numeral 2 and Mayor Luis Puga like numeral 3.
Castillo flew to my left and Puga to my right."
Allan White, who owns the Pebble Island Lodge, has sent me photographs of Raul's C430 wreckage and I can clearly see the "C430" on the left hand side of the fuselage just forward of the cockpit. I will publish it here when I get the time.
There is, apparently, other wreckage in the same spot but we think this may be the aircraft shot down my Martin Hale on 25th May?
It is still interesting to speculate on why Cuerva fired his cannons in a long continuous burst when he was flying towards the airfield and directly over Stanley. (Apparently kids were picking up the shell casings as they fell!)
I should be very surprised if this was a weight reducing strategy. We were very weight conscious in the harrier for hover performance and I might have considered getting rid of external stores and pylons and fuel etc but I would never have thought about firing my cannons. (Perhaps I should!)
I guess I am still trying to figure if his mirage had in fact been damaged by Steve Thomas' missile.
ES