MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Front-line fighter pilot praises Islanders
The fighter pilot who commanded Falkland Islands front line defence in the tense aftermath of the 1982 conflict has been talking about the tough task of deterring any renewed Argentine aggression and coping with the unpredictable and dangerous South Atlantic weather.
Air Marshal Ian Macfadyen, CB, OBE, who later commanded British forces in the Gulf, spoke of his experiences and his regard for the Falkland Islanders in an exclusive interview with Mercopress Correspondent Harold Briley, exactly 20 years since their last interview in Stanley in 1982.
They have met again at Government House in the Isle of Man, where Air Marshal Macfadyen is now the Queen's representative as Lieutenant Governor. His one regret is that professional duties in 1982 were so hectic with no time off in his eight months posting that he made friends with only a few Islanders, though last year he made a point of seeking out Falkland competitors in the Small Island Games and invited them to a reception at Government House. ''In 1982'', he says, ??We worked seven days a week, with no days off''.
''Islanders utterly friendly and welcoming'' ''The Falkland Islanders were utterly friendly and welcoming. They could not do enough for the military and called the noise of the Phantoms 'the sound of freedom'. I regret I have not been back since 1983. I would have loved to have gone back and see how it is today. I don't think that will happen now I am out of the Air Force''.
In 1982 Wing Commander Macfadyen was one the most skilful pilots in the Royal Air Force having been the RAF's top Phantom acrobatic display flyer. He commanded 29 Squadron at RAF Coningsby which provided the Phantom fighter defence of Ascension Island, the vital staging post for the British Task Force.
Then, in one of the longest and most challenging flights of his forty year career in the RAF, he flew the first of eight Phantom fighters to the Falklands to take over its front line air defence when the Task Force and its carrier-based Harriers returned home. Accompanied by a fleet of 19 tanker aircraft in one of the RAF's most expensive fighter flights ever, he had to refuel in flight about 35 times between the United Kingdom and Stanley and also on the ground at Ascension Island.
During the flight he recalls that his radar and the inertial navigation system packed up. Flying much of the time in cloud, he says, ''we had pretty sick aircraft but I had a brilliant navigator in Squadron Leader Pete Simpson who guided me by dead reckoning .It was a great relief when the Royal Navy picked us up and I was escorted by two Harriers 19,000 feet (about 6,000 metres) above Stanley. We landed safely into the first of the six arrester wires, at 150 miles an hour, with a pretty violent jolt. Our extra fuel tanks were immediately replaced by missiles and other weapons, and the Phantom took off again on patrol just as Argentine aircraft began probing the defensive perimeter.
Challenges of Falklands flying! ''We were faced with unique challenges, operating from an aluminum runway which we had never done before. The difficult unpredictable weather -- fog and high winds - caught me out on several occasions. Landing at Stanley on a dark night in thick cloud with no moon, I over-shot the runway, and had to turn round, and land the opposite way, as half the runway was in fog and the rest clear. It was challenging but wonderful training, involving low flying and live weapons''.
Air Marshal Macfadyen went on to high command, as Chief of Staff in the Gulf War, then taking command of British forces there from General Sir Peter de la Billiere, former SAS Director and later Commander of British Forces in the Falkland Islands.
Air Marshal Macfadyen came from an RAF family. His father, also an Air Marshal, was a bomber pilot in the 1939-45 war, in which his uncle was killed as a Battle of Britain hero.
Now 60, Air Marshal Macfadyen is two years into his five year appointment as Isle of Man Governor, where has again found an island people for whom he has high regard, in another beautiful and much more tranquil setting than the Falkland Islands were in 1982.
Harold Briley, Isle of Man.
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