Page 18 - issue05.04.2019

Royal Air Force News Friday, April 5, 2019 P18 Royal Air Force News Friday, April 5, 2019 P19

Feature RAF heroes
SHOOTING THE BREEZE
SHOOTING THE BREEZE
SHOOTING THE BREEZE

Reunion with Argentinian Skyhawk flyer
Reunion with Argentinian Skyhawk flyer
Reunion with Argentinian Skyhawk flyer Old enemies
FRIENDS,
NOT FOES:
David and
Hector have
he battled during Falklands War helped ar helped
he battled during Falklands War helped camaraderie
he battled during Falklands W
developed
a mutual
respect and
former RAF Harrier pilot fight PTSD
former RAF Harrier pilot fight PTSD

POIGNANT: David
on a 2007 visit to the
Falklands standing
among the wreckage of
Skyhawk C-204 flown
by Danilo Bolzan, shot
down in the war

Simon Mander an enemy aircraft for finishing off the third
jet with a missile. Eleven years later he met
RAF pilot who fought off Argentinian the fourth Skyhawk pilot who got away
Skyhawks attacking British ships has – Hector Sanchez – and at his Somerset
Atold of his reconciliation with former home David discovered the dogfight could
HA MEETING UP: (l-r) David Morgan, enemies and peacetime battle with post- have gone very differently.
HARRIER PILOT: David Morgan during his days RRIER PILOT: David Morgan during his days
traumatic stress.
“I nearly collided with Hector, but he
flying with the RAF in the Falklands War Hector Sanchez and Skyhawk pilot
Danilo Bolzan’s son Pablo Now 71, Sea Harrier veteran David backed away and by the time I’d shot down
Morgan recently returned to the South the first Skyhawk he had me in his gun
Atlantic with two ex-Argentine airmen and sights but luckily for me they jammed as
the son of a pilot shot down and killed in he had taken some small arms fire earlier
the same dogfight in the Falklands conflict. on,” David said.
David joined the Royal Navy in 1966 and
flew Wessex helicopters before transferring Son
to the Air Force and converting to Harriers, Earlier this year Hector, by now a firm
despite having undergone open heart friend, contacted David to ask him if he’d
surgery when he was 16. return to the Falklands to meet Pablo
He deployed to the Falklands following Bolzan, the son of Danilo Bolzan – the
the Argentine invasion on April 2, 1982, pilot shot down by Lt Smith.
aboard HMS Hermes and took part in the “We were able to visit the crash site and
first raid on Port Stanley airfield, when explain to Pablo exactly what happened
his aircraft was so badly shot up he was on the day and viewed the wreckage of his
forced to perform the only rolling vertical father’s aircraft, which is still fairly intact,”
landing ever done by a Harrier to get back said David.
on board. “I was able to show him from the
But it was on June 8 while on patrol damage that the aircraft had been hit by a
with his Fleet Air Arm wingman Lt Sidewinder and disintegrated in mid-
David Smith that the confrontation air and had not flown into the ground
took place that was to change his life as some accounts say.”
forever. Psychological
“We were at 10,000 feet over
Fitzroy when we saw the landing craft David’s unlikely friendship with
Galahad and Tristan being attacked by Hector deepened when he realised
four Skyhawks as they tried to evacuate that they had both suffered deep
troops,” he said. psychological damage from the
Diving down at speeds never fighting, even though it only lasted
achieved by a Sea Harrier before about 90 seconds.
he fired a Sidewinder heat-seeking “Fighter pilots are supposed to go
missile destroying one Skyhawk then around biting the heads off babies but
fired again at a second aircraft, whose pilot when I came back I had a lot of problems,”
managed to eject. he said.
“I was overcome with the oddest “I can still get fairly emotional for no
sensation I have ever had, first intense particular reason and sometimes get the
anger at the enemy because I knew they’d urge to strangle old ladies as they fumble
probably killed some of our guys then huge for their change at the check-out.”
empathy as I saw the pilot dangling on the He said the PTSD training he received
end of his parachute, then anger again as I before retiring from the Navy in 1992 had
fired my cannon at a third Argentine jet.” helped but that regular therapy sessions
DSC had brought his symptoms under control.
“Self-treatment is not an option, all
The action won David one of only 11 you’re doing is driving it underground, so
Distinguished Service Crosses (inset above) it comes back later but louder. You need
ever awarded to the RAF, and Lt Smith professional help – manning up and getting
THREE STAR:
on with it doesn’t work,” he said.
became the last British pilot to shoot down Air Mshl Sue Gray