Western Daily Press (Saturday)
PEACE MISSION FOR FORMER RAF PILOT DAVID
IN the white-hot fury of war, Sea Harrier pilot David Morgan blew two Argentinian Skyhawks from the sky before turning his guns on a third – but in peace-time understanding and reconciliation are his aim.
The Falklands War veteran has just returned from a remarkable meeting in the Islands with the son of one of the three Argentine pilots killed that night of June 8, 1982.
Standing with Pablo Bolzán beside the sun-bleached wreck of Primer Teniente Danilo Bolzán’s Skyhawk, on sand dunes near the sea, Mr Morgan was able to explain the fatal action, and answer Pablo’s questions.
When the missile came off the rails it went through the sound barrier DAVID MORGAN
With them were veteran Argentine pilots Hector Sanchez and Luis Cervera, with whom Mr Morgan has long been friends.
Speaking at his home in Wiltshire this week, Mr Morgan, 71, said: “The whole idea of this trip was to cement bonds between us because as I have said many times if it wasn’t for the fact that we were fighting each other on a dark night 8,000 miles away, if we had met in a pub we would have got on like a house on fire.”
Pablo, now aged 38, was only two years old when his father died. Although Mr Morgan aimed to bring down Mr Bolzán senior he had used all his missiles destroying the other two Skyhawks, and had lost his gun sight. It was a Sidewinder missile from fellow Sea Harrier pilot Dave Smith that destroyed the plane. The two Sea Harriers were on combat patrol in the aftermath of Skyhawk bombing of the troop-carrying Royal Fleet Auxiliaries Sir Tristram and Sir Galahad.
The British pilots searched the darkening sky for further attackers. Mr Morgan spotted a Skyhawk only 30 seconds too late to prevent it and a companion from attacking another, smaller, landing craft heading to Port Pleasant.
In the book Hostile Skies, published by Orion, which tells his personal story of the war, Mr Morgan admits frankly that “all-consuming anger welled in my throat”.
It was not just a question of destroying machines: “I was determined to kill these pilots.”
He rolled his Sea Harrier into a 60-70 degree dive descending from 10,000 feet at what “must have been more than 650 knots. No one had ever been that fast in a Sea Harrier at that time. It was 40-50 knots faster than a Harrier was supposed to go. I was going quite close to the speed of sound and when the missile came off the rails it went through the sound barrier and I think the shock wave threw me onto my back at below 50 feet”.
The Skyhawk exploded in mid-air and the pilot could not have survived, but when Mr Morgan saw that the pilot of the second plane had managed to eject, his feelings of anger “immediately turned to feelings of empathy”. That pilot did not survive.
Unknown to Mr Morgan, who lives near Shaftesbury, there was a fourth Skyhawk, and it was on his tail. The pilot was Primer Teniente Hector Sanchez. Fortunately for Mr Morgan the plane had been damaged by ground fire and its guns would not fire.
Mr Morgan was introduced to Mr Sanchez in 1993.
“I didn’t know how I was going to react, but the first thing Hector said to me was ‘Don’t worry David. We were just doing our jobs’.”
He had been in touch with Pablo before this year’s meeting.
“Then I got a message from Hector saying ‘we are going back to the Falklands. Are you going to come?’, and I immediately said yes. I was able to show Pablo that the back of the aircraft had been hit by a missile and it had exploded in mid-air. I was able to prove that that he had not flown into the ground as some accounts have said.
“Hector was pretty overcome because it was the first time he had been down on the islands and the first time he had seen the wreck of his wingman’s plane.”
Mr Morgan was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his services in the war. He was an RAF officer on secondment to the Royal Navy at the time, and remains the last RAF pilot to shoot down an enemy plane in combat.
Several years after the war Mr Morgan was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and was helped by a special PTSD course and an expert therapist. After leaving the services he flew Boeing 747s for Virgin for 19 years. Also an aerobatic pilot, he is part-owner of a Tiger Moth.
Mr Morgan said Pablo held no resentment.
“He is a delightful guy. He knows the full story now, and he is going to take his children to see where their grandfather died.”