A thoroughly enjoyable read that illustrates just how such incidents can happen.
I sense that the author still harbours a bit of guilt for supposedly being responsible for writing off a Mirage. If only he knew that the reason we ended up with the Mirages was because it was the only way the French could balance the trade for $150m of wheat which they owed us. Writing off the Mirage by its makers would have meant wiping off another few million on a replacement.