Naval ‘Jungly’ helicopter pilot who survived a crash in Borneo
LIEUTENANT NEIL BURNS-THOMSON, who has died aged 83, was one of a pioneering group of Royal Navy commando helicopter pilots known as “Junglies”.
After joining 845 Naval Air Squadron in Singapore during the Konfrontasi of 1964, Burns-thomson flew from a forward operating base carved out of the Borneo jungle by the Navy at Nanga Gaat. There, Fleet Air Arm personnel formed a close bond with the local Iban tribe and the campaign’s success led to the RN commando helicopter force acquiring their nickname.
Operations included moving Royal Marines and Gurkhas into positions from which they carried out missions deep in the jungle and he fired SS 11 surface-toair missiles.
On February 14 1965 his Wessex helicopter suffered a double hydraulic failure as he lifted off from Nanga Gaat, became completely uncontrollable, and cartwheeled into the jungle before coming to rest upside down. Miraculously, both B-T, as he was known, and those in the rear cabin emerged unscathed.
Neil Francis Burnsthomson was born in Kent on June 15 1938, to Jack Burns-thomson, a farmer, and Mary (née Green), and educated at Cheltenham School. One of the last generations to be called up for National Service, he spent two years as a junior officer in The Buffs, The Royal East Kent Regiment, seeing service in Ghana.
He joined the Navy in 1960, in an era when naval helicopter pilots where trained in both antisubmarine and commando operations, and joined his first squadron, 848 NAS, equipped with Westland Whirlwinds in the commando carrier Bulwark.
His early experience included a detachment to the Tsavo Game Park in Kenya, while Bulwark visited Mombasa, where he helped the wardens to complete, in a few days, an elephant count which would otherwise have taken months. On his return to Britain, he dropped supplies to West Country farmers cut off by snow.
B-T flew Whirlwinds with the Search and Rescue Flight at RNAS Lossiemouth, before going to the Central Flying School to become a helicopter flying instructor, and then served with 707 NAS at RNAS Culdrose from 1968 to 1970. There he taught the skills of commando flying to a new generation of “Junglies”.
In 1970 he toured the UK flying the RN Schools Presentation Team Wessex helicopter, encouraging young people to consider a career in the Navy. After a year he became the Flight Commander of the unit which embarked a Wessex helicopter in the fleet auxiliary Resource for logistic work in the Far East Fleet.
Once more he found himself flying on a broad variety of tasks in addition to the flight’s basic loadcarrying role and while the ship visited Mombasa he took the dancing group Pan’s People for a goodwill flight over the city. His last flight with the Navy was on May 2 1972 and he left the Navy shortly afterwards.
B-T had a lifelong interest in nature and the environment which his adventures around the world had enhanced. After leaving the Navy he set up a landscaping and garden maintenance business and planted more than 50 trees in his own garden at Morningthorpe in Norfolk.
Several of B-T’S close friends had been killed on operations in Borneo and the campaign left a lasting impression on him. He was proud of what the “Junglies” had achieved and kept in touch with old friends.
In 2013 he returned to Nanga Gaat with some of them to see the naval memorial there honouring those who never came home. He was an active member of the Fleet Air Arm Officers’ Association, the Royal British Legion and the Council for the Preservation of Rural England.
He was divorced from his first wife, Sue Freeman, and in 1976 he married Judy Churchod, who survives him with two children from his first marriage.
Neil Burns-thomson, born June 15 1938, died November 20 2021