I'm looking for help from you guys out there. Early 70s (I'm guessing from memory 73/74) a USAAF fitter (name of Paul Adam Mayer) from Mildenhall took a C130 for a flight, totally illegally etc etc. Much commotion in the press and subsequently wreckage washed up in the Irish Sea. Specualation at the time was that he'd taken the craft as a suicide jolly. Many years later (quite recently in fact) I'ma talking to an ex Air Force C130 Nav (working as such at the time of the incident) and I relate this story to him. He comes up with the story they'd heard at the time that rather than him crashing, the USAAF had scrambled a couple of F104s and shot him down, the rational being they didn't want him to attempt a landing and pancake onto some form of civilisation, very bad PR. Anyone out there remember the incident and able to shed any light?

See here and here