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Now that's salvage!

Tabnabs · 2014-03-13 16:48:27

I heard about this incident a number of years ago, but always wondered if it was a hoax (the location used to change with every telling). Turns out it was completely true: http://www.airsceneuk.org.uk/oldstuff/2006/newarkshar/shar.htm But crew were a wily bunch and…

13-03-2014 5:48pm

#1

Tabnabs

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I heard about this incident a number of years ago, but always wondered if it was a hoax (the location used to change with every telling).

Turns out it was completely true:

Whilst operating from HMS Illustrious it caused an international incident on 7 June 1983 when pilot Lt I. 'Soapy' Watson landed the aircraft on a Spanish freighter Alraigo after an avionics malfunctions left him without contact with the carrier. The landing area used on the Alraigo freighter was the base plate for a telescope that was being shipped to the La Palma Observatory in the Canary Islands. The aircraft did partially slip off its temporary landing platform onto some containers and was eventually off-loaded from the Alraigo at Santa Cruz in Tenerife and was returned to the UK on the MV British Tay.

http://www.airsceneuk.org.uk/oldstuff/2006/newarkshar/shar.htm

But crew were a wily bunch and

The crew of the 2,300-ton Spanish container ship Alraigo won a salvage claim and shared £340,000, with the remaining £230,000 going to the owners of the vessel.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1553244/Why-lost-jet-pilot-took-ride-on-container-ship.html

:pac:

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