The Missing Vulcan - Falklands 1982

[Music] [Applause] if the Cold War had turned hot and the proverbial had hit the fan for many Russians the last thing they would have seen was formations of this aircraft delivering nuclear bombs over the Soviet Union the Avro Vulcan v2 an iconic DeltaWing bomber that fortunately for everyone was never called upon to do what it was designed to do be Britain's contribution to nuclear Armageddon designer Roy Chadwick also designed Britain's other iconic 20th century bomber the Avro Lancaster headed up the team that created the futuristic Vulcan which entered Royal Air Force service in 1956 for 26 years the Vulcan was at the forefront of Britain's nuclear deterrent but none ever flew a mission in anger until 1982 when a rather unexpected conflict suddenly broke out 8,000 miles from the UK in the wastes of the South Atlantic the Falklands War Argentina decided to invade the colony which had been a British territory since 1833 and the Associated territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in April 1982 judging that forthcoming defence cuts announced by Margaret Thatcher's government would mean no military response from Britain in this the Argentine dictatorship was sorely mistaken and Thatcher determined to dispatch a powerful Royal Navy task force built around two aircraft carriers to reclaim the islands logistically the challenge of mounting an amphibious invasion so far from home was daunting for the British Armed Forces Argentina only 400 miles from the Falklands moved a sizable garrison to the islands backed up by jet fighters and a reasonably modern Navy as the task force steams south its commander Rear Admiral sandy Woodward requested targets to attack in the Falkland Islands after considering targets in Argentina itself it was decided to let the RAF have a go at knocking out Port Stanley Airport near the Falklands capital which was being used by Argentine Air Force units these aircraft and facilities could be used against the task force's ships and the planned amphibious landing by Royal Marines and the parachute regiment sea harrier squadrons were mounted on both of the British aircraft carriers but London felt that using raf vulcan bombers to attack stanley airfield would help conserve the task forces valuable sea Harriers for warship protection and other tasks the Vulcans would also be capable of carrying a huge bomb load up to 21 1000 pound bombs but Britain faced some serious problems firstly the Falklands War broke out just as the RAF was phasing out the ageing Vulcan only three squadrons still possessed the type the stock of spares was limited an aerial refuelling systems would have to be rebuilt after being blocked with filler even finding enough 1,000 pound bombs of the correct type was a challenge six aircraft were eventually selected for the raids but how to get them to the Falklands and back the plan was to say the least ambitious the Vulcans would operate from wide-awake airfield on Ascension Island another British colony in the Atlantic it was 3,300 nautical miles or 6100 kilometers from the Falklands in order to reach Stanley bomb and return to ascension a Vulcan and the second reserve backup aircraft would require a total of 11 refueling tankers to refuel the Vulcans and each other the RAF turned to another V bomber the Handley page Victor the RAF Victor's had been converted into tankers with the RAF only had 23 left in service by the end of April 1982 the RAF had 14 Victor's at Ascension Island the bombing missions were codenamed black buck black buck one was launched on the night of the 30th of April to 1st of May 1982 two Vulcans were involved while acting as backup plus 11 Victor tankers in total 18 aerial refueling would be required from the mission the primary Vulcans suffered a window seal failure after takeoff which meant the crew cabin couldn't be pressurized the reserve Vulcan XM 6:07 performed the raid instead dropping 21 1000 pound errs across Port Stanley runway one bomb creating a large crater in the runway itself three Argentines were killed and several injured backing up this attack nine Royal Navy sea Harriers struck the airfield with bombs one sea harrier being damaged by 20-millimeter anti-aircraft fire the primary aircraft for blackbuck 2 was again X m60 7 which flew a virtually identical sortie to the first mission the night of the 3rd the 4th of May but this time the bombs all missed the runway but craters at the end of the runway prevented Argentine engineers from extending the runway to accommodate fast jet fighters which would have been a serious problem to the task force only lighter aircraft and Hercules c-130s could use it due to strong headwinds blackbuck 3 was scrubbed on the 14th of May blackbuck 4 was also scrubbed after the two Vulcans were 5 hours into the mission again due to weather this mission was the first to carry the Americans supplied shrike anti-radiation tension being to destroy an Argentine Air Force Westinghouse a ntps 43 long-range 3d radar deployer that Stanley airfield forgave the Argentine's good all-round coverage of the Falklands that the attack with the Shrike missiles would only work if the Argentine switched the radar on when a Vulcan was in the vicinity blackbuck 5 also targeted this powerful radar the Sea Harrier raided when Vulcan XM 597 appeared and the Argentine's helpfully switch the radar on XM 597 launched two Shrike missiles one impacted 10 to 15 yards or 9 to 14 metres from the radar but did not knock it out the second completely missed primary aircraft Vulcan XM 5 9 7 was tasked with repeating the mission flown on the 31st of may designated blackbuck 6 piloted by Squadron Leader Neil mcdougal XM 597 was armed with four Frank missiles instead of two flying reserve was Vulcan xm5 9/8 MacDougall's mission occurred on the 3rd of June 1982 on arrival over the Falklands the radar was not switched on MacDougal lighted 440 precious minutes hoping that the Argentine's would switch on their radar but no luck instead two of the shrikes were fired at another radar system destroying a sky guard fire control radar for guns for the Argentine 600 and the first anti-aircraft Battaglia killing four operators but the action was going too hot up to XM five nine seven as she headed for ascension trina-- refueling from a victor the probe snapped off meaning the XM five nine seven could no longer take on fuel she was thousands of miles from base and flying at forty five thousand feet over the Atlantic when the drama began McDougald faced two choices either ditched the Vulcan in the ocean when the fuel was exhausted or find the nearest land and put her down he chose the latter the closest landfill was Brazil 700 miles to the west it would be tight the Vulcan barely had enough fuel left to reach the airport at Rio de Janiero the next problem was obvious the Vulcan was still armed with two shrike anti-radiation 'he's quietly supplied to britain by a supposedly neutral United States that intended to maintain friendly relations with both the UK and Argentina MacDougall decided to get rid of them one was successfully launched into the sea that the other refused to budge the last missile could not be fired a second problem were sensitive documents maps and other material on board that Her Majesty's government would have preferred not to fall into the hands of foreigners but how to get rid of this material MacDougall had no choice but to depressurize the aircraft at 45,000 feet and half the crew opened the main hatch and dumped the material at sea with the crewman on oxygen fuel running out and two of them struggling to try and close the crew hatch as the temperature inside the aircraft began to plummet an emergency was declared to Rio de Janeiro air-traffic control Mayday Mayday Mayday this is a British four jet approximately 500 miles east of Rio de Janeiro at flight level 4 3 0 with an in-flight emergency and very short of fuel we request an immediate diversion to the nearest suitable airfield this is Brazil control please say your callsign your country of departure and your destination this is a skirt five nine seven a British four jet with five souls on board critically short of fuel and with no cabin pressure we request immediate assistance and permission to divert to the nearest suitable airfield these exchanges went on for some time the Brazilians constantly demanding that the aircraft identify its point of departure the Brazilian control also refused them permission to land navigator david castle from Yorkshire who is struggling with the door shouted at the radio operator for goodness sake tell him to be quiet while we handle this emergency if he won't be quiet tell him we're from Huddersfield this is exactly what the radio operator did calling up Rio control he said this is Oscar at five nine seven we are a British four jet in an emergency desperately short of fuel and we are from Huddersfield Squadron Leader MacDougall in the meantime spiral be Vulcan down to 23,000 feet and head of the Rio in the meantime the Brazilian scramble to northrop f-5e tiger two fighters from santa cruz airfield to intercept the vulcan when mcdougal landed at Rio Airport he had less than two thousand pounds and nine hundred and ten kilos of fuel remaining sufficient not even for one circuit of the airport it was an embarrassing situation for the British government and even more so for that of the United States which has supplied Britain with the Shrike missiles one of which was still on its underwing pylons aboard the vulcan the british crew were interned by the Brazilians and the Brazilian government initially refused to release either the crew or the aircraft however on the 4th of June 1982 a deal was struck behind closed doors to release the plane and crew in exchange for spare parts for Lynx helicopters operated by the Brazilian military and built in the UK the intervention of the United States was also critical in attempting to preserve the secrets of the Shrike missile on the 10th of June the Vulcan and her crew were permitted to fly to Ascension Island there a new refuelling probe was fitted the aircraft then flew back to raf waddington on the 13th of june but the Shrike missile will that remained Brazil the day before XM 5 9 7 s release the last Black Buck mission had been flown against Stanley airfield following a British amphibious landing in a series of tough battles in the mountains around Stanley Port Stanley itself was captured and the Argentine's surrendered on the 14th of June 1982 the employment of the Vulcan in the Falklands has been criticized by many commentators but the black bar Commission's demonstrated how even the seemingly impossible could be achieved with careful planning logistics and daring aircrew unfortunately blackbuck proved the swan song of the Vulcan which left RAF service in March 1984 special thanks to the staff at the city of Norwich aviation museum for granting me access to Vulcan XM 6 1 2 which had been due to be lead aircraft for Black Buck 3 thanks for watching please subscribe and share also visit my new audiobook channel all stories with Mark Felton you can also help support both of my channels at PayPal and patreon details in the description box

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 2,014,103

Rating: 4.8997741 out of 5

Keywords: Mark Felton Productions, Avro Vulcan, Falklands, Black Buck

Id: ng_X2dHJpZ4

Length: 14min 3sec (843 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 16 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Massive-Gas]

I was taking a lunch break south of Hornsea East Yorkshire England with my dog Sam. We were stood on the cliff edge looking out to sea when an almighty roar sounded just above and behind us. Well Sam and I nearly fell off the cliff. (maybe 20 feet high) My heart was in my mouth as that huge Vulcan flew just feet above us. My god , the roar of its engines left me wide mouthed as the aircraft flew out to sea and bombed some targets, them turned and climbed up into the sky. This moment took just a few seconds. I calmed down Sam and went home for some clean underwear. haha . A few days later on the TV news it said a Vulcan bomber had attacked Stanley Airfield. I wouldn't have believed that such an aircraft could get so close without being aware of its presence. An impressive aircraft.

[u/NaturalAlfalfa]

18 AARs in one flight. Also, Vulcans look amazing

[u/ArcTanderEve]

Was driving some colleagues on a work visit in the mid 2010s down the M4 - saw a plane flying over head out of the corner of my eye.

Did a double take, it was ‘return to the sky’ - I might have gone a big OTT.

My colleagues thought i was nuts.

‘It’s just a plane’

JUST a plane I thought, philistines.... ;-)

[u/Tiny_Pay]

In the mid 50's, my dad was a RAAF pilot doing the Test Pilot's course in England. He flew all 3 'V bombers' in their early stages and was the first to fly the Vulcan through the sound barrier. He liked the Vulcan the most and would fly them at air shows in Australia in the early 60's. As a boy, I would help load big balloons into the bomb bay for dad to release over the crowds. Top plane.

[u/Guevorkyan]

You might wanna check out this video then!

It gives a much clearer viewpoint of that mission.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5yAtuYPHK4