24 May 1982, 1500 GMT approx.
A beautiful day for a change. The skies clear apart from the odd scattered snow shower passing through. A good day for aviation – good for the Argies too and it’s about now that things start happening over the islands.
I’ve been sitting strapped into the cockpit of my Sea Harrier FRS1 now for two hours as one of four pilots on “Alert 5” (five minutes to launch). The deck is as crowded as I’ve ever seen on a carrier of this size. Fourteen Sea Harriers, six RAF ground attack GR3 Harriers and several assorted commando and anti-submarine helicopters. The activity is frantic. We are launching two Sea Harriers every 15 minutes in a consolidated attempt to maintain a patrol over the landing force some 230 miles to the west. In addition, the ground attack boys are launching practically as often to attack specific targets and then landing and to be rapidly re-fuelled and re-armed and sent off again.
The ‘Alert 5’ team are there to reinforce in the event of an Argie air attack.
Suddenly amongst the din of the flight deck I heard, “Scramble the Alert 5 Harriers – Air raid warning red in the Islands.”
Heart thumping, I set the Pegasus 104 engine into life and having aligned and set the navigational computer, taxi out onto the centre line. No time to reflect – a quick engine and flying controls check then slam the throttle to full power and release the brakes. 10 tons of the best Rolls Royce engineering hits me squarely in the back as the engine develops full power in just under two seconds and the Harrier roars down the deck. A quick check of RPM and jet pipe temperature – looking good – and here comes the ski-jump – whoosh! And we are off, nozzles smartly to 35 degrees and hold everything. Resist the temptation to touch the controls. Angle of attack, side-slip engine all looking good. Ok she is reaching the peak of the trajectory, start easing the nozzles forward, landing gear and flap up, speed increasing rapidly through 400 KTS – Now, where’s my leader? Ah, there he is launching just behind me. We will be climbing shortly for the 200-mile plus transit to the combat zone. I wonder what awaits us there. No time to ponder. The leader has called me into formation and up we go.
We rapidly level at 35000 ft and settle down to a brief period of quiet before descending into the zone. This is a good moment to make absolutely sure that the weapon systems are working. Both AIM9L missiles set with the correct head up display modes, gunsight set, Mirage wingspan 27ft inserted in case of getting into guns range with my twin 30mm Aden cannons.
Then all too quickly we are descending and talking to our controlling ship HMS BROADSWORD. The area is still air raid warning red. One raid has already been in and a second expected shortly. The adrenalin is really running high now. Two Sea Harriers against possibly four Mirages – interesting odds! Then over the radio “Vector 260 degrees incoming raid 50 miles west, believed low-level “Buster, Buster” (Go full power). My leader accelerates rapidly through 550KTS and descends to just above the wave tops. I manoeuvre to keep tucked in about 200 yards on his right echelon so that I can turn aggressively with him whilst keeping an eye on the airspace behind us in the case of an enemy escort.
The control ship is calling range and bearing of the raid now rapidly closing as they pass just north of Pebble Island. Suddenly the leader spots them and shouts “Tally Ho (yes we still do!) – engaging now!” He rolls out behind them and fires two missiles in quick succession. There are two fiery red fireballs as the left hand and the right-hand Mirages of the attack formation disintegrate in mid-air. The lead aircraft is breaking hard into me jettisoning his bombs and fuel tanks. I roll hard into the turn pulling six ‘g’ to get my missile into a firing position. I’m rewarded with a growl as it detects the heat of his afterburner and quick press of the accept button on the stick locks and tracks the target. Safety flap back and fire. A loud bang and flash – the aircraft rocks as the missile snakes across the inside of the combat turn towards the target. I watch with a sort of helpless fascination. For a moment time seemed to stand still although in reality I am travelling at just over 10 miles a minute very close to the sea. Oddly, the missile just seems to clip his tail with little initial effect so I keep pulling as hard as I can into the turn to line up for another shot. Moments later a thin vapour trail behind the Mirage ignites and suddenly there is what looks like a hundred yard trail of orange fire and black smoke behind him. He seems to stop fighting but curiously remains with the aircraft. Surely, he is not going anywhere in that state?! He descends inescapably towards the high ground by Pebble Island and I find myself silently urging him to eject! Just before impact with the ground I see the ejection sequence start but never saw the parachute fully deploy. My attention is diverted by a fourth Mirage that flies directly underneath me heading at very high speed to the west. I flick my aircraft over to a 120 degree bank and pull as hard as I can to get my missile onto him but he quickly out distances me. I look over my shoulder and see my leader and we form up and use what little fuel we have left to return to the Combat Air Patrol station.
A few minutes later we have to depart in order to get back to the aircraft carrier a couple of hundred miles out to the east.
Strange feeling as I fly back to the ship. Delighted at having prevented a raid getting through and at getting my first kill but at the same time rather shaken to witness the burning death of fast jet combat at low level.
Postscript: Paris early 2000.
I’m now a captain with Cathay Pacific Airways flying Airbus 330’s and 340’s based in Hong Kong.
I’ve just landed in Paris after a bringing an A340-300 flight in from Hong Kong. I’m awake in the middle of the night as usual due to the time difference and I’m idly surfing the internet in my hotel room.
For some reason I’m looking at Argentinian Air Force subjects and I get onto a website where aeromodellers build beautiful miniature replicas of various combat aircraft, photograph them and publish the results on the web. I find a photo of and Argentinian Mirage V side number C430 with a story attached to it. The maker of the model describes how this aircraft was flown by a Capitan Raul Diaz as he led two other Mirages into the target in the Falklands on 24th May 1982. My interested grows as I realize this could be the raid I was involved in. As I read on the story suddenly changes from third to first person with the words “I was leading a formation of three Mirages Vs to the target in the Falklands Sound when we were bounced by two Sea Harriers from HMS Hermes…” I realized to my complete astonishment that the person who was writing this was the pilot I shot down! I had been quite convinced for the past twenty years that he had left the ejection from his aircraft too late and has perished in the crash.
I immediately wrote to the author of the website and asked an explanation. Well, one thing led to another and it turns out that he had some contacts within the Argentinian Air Force and the next thing I know is that I get an email from – now – Colonel Raul Diaz who explains how it all happened from his perspective!
Apparently, after my missile hit him his aircraft became totally uncontrollable and he was only able to initiate his ejection at the very last moment due to being violently flung around the cockpit. He only just got a deployed parachute in time and hit the ground hard badly injuring himself in the process. He added some very interesting insight to the combat and ended by thanking me for being a gentleman and asking after his wellbeing.
We’ve kept in touch since.
An extraordinary end to and extraordinary event!
Lieutenant David A.B. Smith RN (School House 68-73) was mentioned in despatches for his service during the Falklands Campaign.
See also:
- ‘Air Combat in the Falklands’, a talk given by Lieutenant David Smith to the Aviation Historical Society of Australia (Qld) Inc., 24 February 2023 (YouTube)
- Shirburnians & the Falklands Conflict, 1982