Stolen C-130: Well worth the long read.
 

Basically a repeat of earlier report and with inconsistencies. Did the Wattisham Lightning fire a missile or not?

Was the noise at Lakenheath an F100 and not the C130 as stated?

What missile was the Hunter supposed to have fired?

​If it crashed near Jersey, what was the French take on that?

Of today it is an incident 49 years ago before many of the Beeb's producers were born and ripe for the usual aviation mystery genre up there with the Sikorski incident, Amelia Erhart, Amy Johnson and Glen Miller ones, not to mention Leslie Howard.

Yeah, all very suspect and often chewed over here. Too many inconsistencies and contradictions.

However, nice to note that old colleague Ernie Scates did the log transcript from Heathrow Radar. ;)

MPN, at that was a transcript of a 540, why have they not checked the 540/541 from Wattisham and Chivenor or 540s from Eastern and Southern?

A fair question, although anything sneaky-beaky might have been redacted at the outset. "Do NOT put this in the log."

BBC mentions -
Were RAF Hunters ever fitted with Air to Air missiles?

No.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Certainly no British ones but not the case with some export jobbies. However as I have said before even a Hunter 6 or 9 loaded with practice ammo (ball) should have been capable of knocking down a C130.

Interesting "Rick Groombridge said" and "refused to be interviewed"

2 Lightings were sent out from Wattisham.
I was on duty at West Drayton at the time and remember the request from the air defence people to penetrate the LTMA.

Chevvy, no dispute that it happened, just scepticism on the journalistic mystery with its suggestion of a British aircraft shooting it down and then a cover up. 50 years on, many players still around, and no one saying it happened.

Did a Lightning fire a missile or not? Did a Hunter have a missile? Did no controller heard the order to fire? Etc etc?

Like others, I heard UN CONFIRMED rumours of one of the Lightnings rtb minus a missile.

The article finishes with...

I wonder how it would have been reported (then and now) if he'd lost it on take off and planted it into a housing estate ??? Dude was to some degree intoxicated and completely unqualified - any outcome was in play I venture. That fact that he ended up in the oggin, whilst individually tragic for him and his loved ones, would have been something of a relief for most of us, would it not??

Exactly, but Rick Groombridge declined to be interviewed and no further evidence has been produced. Even failure to disclose the ORBs would have been evidence of a sort.

Well I'm convinced the Chiv Hunter returned with no missiles. Indeed, if it had returned with missiles there would have been a very confused pilot and see-in crew.

Disregarding the :"Hunter Missiles" nonsense, Rick Groombridge did write his 'Lightning Boys" account, which puts him in a corner.

It really doesn't surprise me that Groombucket had the sense to decline to be interviewed about this bolleaux….