1969 USAF C130 Wreckage Found in Channel

[paddyboy]

Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 = Grasshoppers 'display' at MH, IMHO

[Malcolm]

1969 was before my time, but, did the USAF in the UK really stand active air defence QRA in those times? I've got my doubts. And if they didn't stand QRA, then the time required to put live armourments on a fighter and launch it would have precluded them doing anything in time I would have thought. By the time the alarm went off, someone legged it to the armoury and fetched some cannon shells and a sidewinder or two, fitted them to a jet and found a qualified crew the Herc would be 2 hours down range and out of F-4 range. If they'd gone supersonic half the country would have known about it, and it would hare required a tanker to get back to base and/or a divert to St Mawgan.

If a shoot-down did happen, then RAF or French QRA seem far more likely candidates to me, although the chain of command required for either to be allowed to shoot down a US aircraft if it were outside the 12 mile limit over the sea makes even that unlikely IMV.

[Freeman Lowell]

Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 = Grasshoppers 'display' at MH, IMHO

Paddy,
I feel that I have jump in here...and agree with you!
Freeman

[Snoop 95]

I was around in 1969, at school!, and vague memory recalls that it was not shot down and just ran out of gas and flopped into the sea.

[The Phantom]

That's why it would be good if they could recover it and hopefully find clues to what really did happen once and for all.

[Snoop 95]

Extensive and enlightening (but inconclusive) article about this from BBC News Webisite:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-44711694

[The Phantom]

So many stories and conspiracies:
The Lightning pilot saying the plane returned with a missile missing; but the armourer says both planes came back with all 4 missiles?!
Then the talk of what went on at Chivenor - with another plane allegedly returning with missiles missing.

All we can hope is that they find the crashed plane once and for all (though it would seem to be the same sort of odds as winning the lottery!) and it would hopefully prove once and for all if the plane just crashed or was shot down.

[Snoop 95]

BBC story about the location of the wreck of the stolen C130 from RAF Mildenhall, which has been shrouded in mystery. Did it run out of fuel and crash or was it shot down?
This was a topic covered earlier this year, perhaps mods could unite the two.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-46624382

[Knife 04]

Interesting read Snoop

[BMrider]

Yes interesting, but nothing to confirm the ID of the wreckage, There must be hundreds of wrecks in the channel

[Nighthawke]

Just for correctness, wasn't this a Mildenhall aircraft? I can see no reference in any of the BBC's 3 articles to Woodbridge.
However, an interesting story to which there may never be answers.

[Snoop 95]

Yes Nighthawke you are right it was a Mildenhall a/c. Hadn't got my brain in gear yet! Amended my headline item.

[quid21]

Perhaps he might find Glenn Miller at the same time. I have no doubt that conspiracy theories will abound again. It crashed, he died, it may have been shot down?,. If so it could be justified. Does this really matter anymore?. If his relatives discover 'the truth' I am sure that they would understand why it was brought down. [if that is the case, which I, personally doubt.]

The truth always matters.

But I guess it all depends on whether they learn anymore by diving to the wreck than is already known.

I'm sure that a 'rogue' who stole an aircraft during the Cold War would justify being shotdown, I find it hard to believe a drunk could convince anyone to ready an airplane let alone takeoff by himself while drunk - but you never know. Regardless of whether all the stories of him being shot down or crashing of his own accord are true, the real tragedy was on the part of the USAF for not identifying him as suffering from PTSD and making sure he couldn't hurt himself or anyone else. I guess PTSD was probably swept under the carpet or not properly understood back then? Who knows.

Intriguing story.

[rh226]

Back then, PTSD was not known for what it is. It was not officially recognised by the medical profession until 1980.

[Snoop 95]

A bit more from today's EADT local paper in which the diver asks for information on the aircraft and its last flight to let him have it:

https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/grahame-kno ... -1-5839127