Why are navigators given a rough ride?
SIR Recent letters February 9) have discussed the status of RAF navigators. In one account I came across, the navigator of a Mosquito plane during the Second World War admitted that he had lost his bearings and told his pilot to “head north with a dash of west”. Simon McIlroy
Croydon, Surrey
SIR – Whatever may be the view on navigators in Crab Air – as the junior service is “affectionately” known by those parts of the Armed Forces with slightly longer histories – observers, aircrewmen and gunners are rated more highly in the Army, Fleet Air Arm and Royal Marines.
In 1982, during the dark hours before the Argentine surrender in the Falklands, a company of one of the Commandos advancing on Port Stanley incurred casualties in a minefield, and a Royal Marines Gazelle had to carry out casualty evacuation. The night was rather black, with heavy cloud cover; vision aids were not available and, with the absence of a reliable horizon, the pilot mostly had to fly by reference to the attitude indicator and other instruments.
This left the corporal aircrewman working the radios, map-reading, passing instructions to the pilot and keeping such visual lookout as he could for “cumulo-granite”. He became, for much of the eight-hour sortie, aircraft captain (though weather conditions eventually improved). That the task was achieved was entirely due to his competence and judgment. The pilot had, as he afterwards stated, been reduced to a glove puppet.
The aircrewman was recommended for a Distinguished Flying Medal. A civil servant, no doubt gazing out at the hazardous environs of Whitehall, decided that this was not deserved. Andrew Newcombe QC
Combe Down, Somerset