Buccaneer finale Lossiemouth March 1994
 

By all accounts the flying was spectacular, does a video exist?

Was that really 25 years ago! I had planned to go to that but had car trouble on the Friday, and by the time I got it sorted on Saturday morning it was too late to get up to Lossie. I did get 3 Hercs in at Carlisle that day though, but it wasn't the same.

We were there, on the hill on the road to Burghead. I know the memory does tricks but I recall seeing more than one Bucc for the 'final' flight. Very impressive, the eldest son still talks about it. I remember the last to land being set back just a bit from the others - it was a definite lump in the throat feeling. And the utter disgrace of seeing them in the scrappies yard in Elgin just a few weeks later.

The scrappies opposite Gateway, as it was then! What an ignominious end to a fine flying machine and slightly odd going for the weekly shop to see a pile of buccaneers next to the old cars.

What else were they going to do with them?

Keep a few flying in the form of an historic flight either RN or RAF; look to get a few over to the US where there seems to be the money and the will to keep classic aircraft flying. All easier said than done I know but if the will exists..............

Yes HAS59, eight Buccaneers were flown that day and beat up the airfield in good measure!

I think the footage in question came from 'Farewell Bucc', a video made in 1994 by Videoage Productions.

It included some fairly spectacular footage from Gib and from the closing day(s), at Lossie and the 'airfield attacks'. Very unfortunately, the film crew 'forgot' to keep a log of which day or time different scenes were shot on, so no fingers could be pointed.

What's your personal interest Steve Bond? Were you involved / there / on Buccs?

CS

The CFE Treaty (Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty) was in full flow during the 1990s and there really was no hope of large numbers of Buccaneers surviving the scrapman. Apparently the Buccaneer that was at the petrol station in Elgin caused a bit of a stir during a CFE inspection at Lossiemouth!

See following thread for that story.

https://www.pprune.org/7973965-post7.html

As of 2017 the UK holds no Buccaneers on CFE declared sites.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/conventional-armed-forces-in-europe-equipment-holdings-statistics-2017

https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheet/cfe

for Davef68 who asked ''What else were they going to do with them?''

Well having wished I could have seen some examples of previous RAF aircraft which have all long gone I would have liked to have seen as many as possible preserved in as good a condition as possible. Yes, I know it all takes money but look around at how much is being needlessly wasted - there is a lot of it around. Some would inevitably be dumped for scrap but I do think that most of the survivors could/should have been flown off to museums while there was still the chance.

The Thunder & Lightning website lists 26 complete Buccaneers and a similar number of nose/cockpits sections still in existence. There are of course some more in South Africa..