Sea Harrier vs. Canberra - Looking for Falklands pilots

[nazca_steve]

Dear all,

This is a bit of a long shot, but I am looking to get in touch with anyone that either was, or knows personally, a Sea Harrier pilot from 800 and 801 NAS that had experience intercepting Argentine Canberra aircraft during the Falklands War.

I have talked to Sharkey Ward already and he has helped where he can, but I would very much like to talk to Andy McHarg and any others that were scrambled or on CAPs vectored to intercept a Canberra raid. The background is I am writing a book on the Canberra in international service and interviewing both sides for the chapter on Argentine Canberras. So far it has gone very well but I would dearly like to include our pilots' viewpoints if possible. I mention Lt McHarg specifically because I believe he came within visual range of one of them. There may be others that did too, and I am hoping someone here can point me in the right direction.

For the record I have tried to locate Mike Broadwater over the last few years but no joy.

Thanks all for your time.

Regards,

Steve

[NutLoose]

Steve,

I think Flypast or Aeroplane or similar did an Article on the Argentine Canberra operations, will see if I still have it... Some very very brave guy flying them.

[nazca_steve]

Thanks a lot, Nutloose. Agreed, their crews were certainly brave. It's a fascinating story quite frankly, pitting an aircraft was that was still essentially an early jet bomber design (despite upgrades) against ship to air missiles and a fighter of the calibre of the Harrier. I have plenty of material from the Canberra crews perspective, but nothing from the SHAR pilot's angle, and I would very much like to hear their thoughts on engagements (or at least potential engagements) of this nature.

[Dave Clarke Fife]

Argentine Canberras equipped Grupo 2 de Bombardeo, FAA and 8 aircraft were deployed at Trelew in April 1982. Type designation was B.62 and argentina had 10 of these airframes and two trainers designated T.64. Approximately 36 sorties flown mostly at night.

On May 1st B.62 code B-110 operated by pilot Eduardo de Ibanez and nav Mario Gonzalez took off from Trelew along with two other Canberras . 150nm out from Stanley the flight was identified by a FC on board Invincible. Two SHARS of 801 were scrambled and XZ451 flown by Lt Alan Curtis intercepted B-110 and launched an AIM-9L Sidewinder which hit close to one of its engines causing a fire to spread rapidly over the wing. Both crew ejected before the aircraft hit the sea. Despite attempts to engage the other two Canberras no contacts were made and they escaped back to base. Despite the good work of MB in getting them safely out of their stricken aircraft no trace was ever found of the Argentinian crew members.

On June 14th a second Canberra -B-108 - was brought down by a SeA Dart fired from Exeter, this time the pilot Roberto Pastran ejected and recovered by RN SAR.

All data courtesy of Pete West and Flypast.

[nazca_steve]

Cheers, Dave. Don't take this the wrong way at all, but I am looking less for facts on the Argentine Canberras as already I have plenty of material relating to their missions and the results. I'm specifically looking in this case for SHAR pilots who chased them. I know this is a tall order, but I'm trying all angles in the hope I can make contact with one of them.

Again, thanks for putting all this down here, I'm not trying to come across ungrateful, just at this point in my project I am trying to tailor my request very carefully and not waste people's time.

P.S. one thing I should point out too is the often incorrect data regarding the second kill. It was not Exeter that shot it down, but HMS Cardiff. Pastran was found more by chance on the 14th by a Wessex flying from Fitzroy to San Carlos who happened to spot him signalling by torch. While the RN knew they had shot something down that night, the initial belief was it was a Mirage based off the radar emissions tracked by Cardiff's operators. There was no known SAR effort made to locate a downed Canberra crewman. He was actually quite lucky he was picked up!

[NutLoose]

Try some of the threads on here this one is a good read

http://www.pprune.org/military-aircrew/479504-falklands-most-daring-raid.html

[Navaleye]

I believe HMS Cardiff got the Canberra kill refered to in a previous post. An excellent long range night time pot shot by her ops room team.

[Dave Clarke Fife]

Apologies for giving you gen you already have......😏 Good luck with the search/research

[nazca_steve]

No need to apologise at all, Dave. Thanks for taking an interest in the subject!

[harrierAEO]

I may be able to help because I am in touch with a number of ex Sea Harrier pilots.
Are you happy for me to try to redirect this thread to them?

Yours Aye
Dick

[nazca_steve]

Hello Dick,

I am more than happy for you to direct this thread to them, in fact I'd be positively grateful for your help. If they prefer to contact me via email, I will PM you my address as well.

Thanks very much,

Steve

[Davef68]

Steve,

You might want to try here:

SHAR_Home (http://www.seaharrier.co.uk/)

[rjtjrt]

Steve
This thread had a lot of info about air war in The Falklands.

http://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/297920-falklands-crash-sites.html

[Widger]

I vaguely recall that the booster rocket from Cardiff's shot was displayed in the grounds of what was HMS Dryad, now Southwick Park and full of Crushers and Adminers!

[nazca_steve]

Very interesting about the booster. I wonder how this was acquired? Not being overly familiar with the Sea Dart, how and where would this booster have detached itself and been found?

Cheers for the links, I will do some trawling now.

[nazca_steve]

Bumping this post in the hopes it may come across the right the eyes. On that note, Dick (HarrierAEO) - any luck with the former SHAR pilots you mentioned?

Steve