NI helicopter shooting

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Member for

8 years 9 months

Posts: 7

In his book 'Flying Royal Marines', Colonel Michael Reece briefly mentions that in 1991 Royal Marine pilot Darren 'George' Hunt' received a Mention in Despatches after his helicopter came under fire and was apparently shot down by the IRA. Does anyone have any more info about this incident?

Thanks.

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Member for

8 years 9 months

Posts: 7

Thanks for the link. I've read about this Gazelle crash in Feb 1990 but I'm not sure if this was the incident for which the Royal Marine pilot was awarded his MiD - the dates don't seem to match up (the award of the MiD was announced in the London Gazette in November 1991, which suggests the event occurred earlier that year). I've read that there was a machine-gun attack on a Lynx on 15 February 1991 - perhaps it's related to this attack. Anyone have any info about this incident?

Member for

16 years 2 months

Posts: 1,528

At a recent 'Meet the pilots' event at the Museum of Army flying the public were regaled with the story of the 'Terrorist' gun attack on an Army Air Corps Skeeter in Northern Ireland where the pilot was also decorated. The point of the story was that although the rotor was damaged by gunfire and the pilot did need skill to get it down without further damage, it wasn't a terrorist incident. The squadron had got into the habit of flying low over a lough to allow the passenger to use a shotgun to 'wildfowl' for the mess and had managed to hit his own rotor! :-)