Sea King Rescue 80

There are more details of the Sea King and the rescue on pprune

http://www.pprune.org/military-aircrew/355045-sea-king-xz574.html

Definitely Sea King, as described in post #3, the Wessex were on day standby and the Sea King for night.
The Sea King (‘Rescue 80) pilot and winchmen both appeared and gave their accounts on the Penlee disater programme that has just been on

Thanks for posting that Longshot, have you got the other image with the Wessex?

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I left the other image off this thread because it showed the Wessex. Is everybody 100% that it was a Sea King on station when the Solompn Browne was lost? I always thought it was a Wessex, but have no evidence either way.

One with the Wessex here

http://www.cornwalls.co.uk/photos/img281.htm

Thanks for posting that Longshot, have you got the other image with the Wessex?

Have to entirely echo what Rob has said about the bravery of the crews.
I really recommend trying to watch the programe tonight, if it’s the one I have seen befor it is very good, but a tough watch.

Scotavia, Sea King XZ574 is now on display in the main FAA Museum building.

John sorry to hear about your uncle, one of my other interests is the older RNLI Lifeboats, sounds like he had a very interesting career.

Re the main subject, as far as I’m aware the Sea King in question still hasn’t been confirmed as the one used that night, I’ve just checked the history page of XZ574 on the FAAM website and it doesn’t mention this rescue, though interesting to see it was the same A/C that rescued the downed Harrier pilot during the Falklands.

Incredibly it is 30 years since this terrible tragedy unfolded, litrally to the moment.

The Solomon Browne Watson Class lifeboat was launched from the Penlee slip at 20.12 after the horrendous weather conditions rendered the Sea King rescue attempt of the captain, his family, and crew from the powerless Union Star inefective.
As we now know the Solomon Browne and her brave crew were all lost alonf with the ships crew.

Coxswain Trevelyan Richards
Second Coxswain/Mechanic Stephen Madron,
Assistant Mechanic Nigel Brockman
Emergency Mechanic John Blewett
crewmembers Charlie Greenhaugh
Kevin Smith
Barrie Torrie
Gary Wallis

Captain Henry Morton
Mate James Whittaker,
Engineer George Sedgwick,
Crewman Anghostino Verressimo, and
Crewman Manuel Lopes
Dawn Morton
Sharon Morton
Deanne Morton

This link is worth reading through, http://westcoast-news.org/story-penlee.htm

There is a programme on this tomorrow on BBC4 at 22.00.

At the request of pagen01….. the ‘Solomon Browne’ exercising (with a Wessex) for an RNLI Fete on Penzance Promenade, July 1979

Good thread, a reminder to myself that despite many advances in technology the sea is still a very tricky place to operate in bad weather.

As for the Sea King due to go on display, the majority of the public will be un aware of the radome and far more interested in the story of the rescues.

I have always admired the FAA museum and the supporters, they seem to get a lot done on low resources and also avoid the excessive trend to spending a lot on landmark buildings.

Well done James for highlighting this very sombre anniversary. I have been down to Cornwall on many occasions, leaving flowers at the old Penlee lifeboat house.. and made the effort to visit the site of the tragedy with my family on its 20th anniversary.
In my opinion, and it is just my opinion, it remains the greatest act of bravery in peacetime… ever.!!

Also related as a follow up;

Divisional Inspector (as was then) Leslie J. Vipond, RNLI, (my uncle) passed away last year following an accident at home. He was one of the men responsible for making sure that disasters like Penlee could never happen again.

(JT442, The artist formerly known as Lindy’s Lad, many moons ago)

Incredibly it is 30 years since this terrible tragedy unfolded, litrally to the moment.

The Solomon Browne Watson Class lifeboat was launched from the Penlee slip at 20.12 after the horrendous weather conditions rendered the Sea King rescue attempt of the captain, his family, and crew from the powerless Union Star inefective.
As we now know the Solomon Browne and her brave crew were all lost alonf with the ships crew.

Coxswain Trevelyan Richards
Second Coxswain/Mechanic Stephen Madron,
Assistant Mechanic Nigel Brockman
Emergency Mechanic John Blewett
crewmembers Charlie Greenhaugh
Kevin Smith
Barrie Torrie
Gary Wallis

Captain Henry Morton
Mate James Whittaker,
Engineer George Sedgwick,
Crewman Anghostino Verressimo, and
Crewman Manuel Lopes
Dawn Morton
Sharon Morton
Deanne Morton

Russell Smith the American exchange pilot of ‘Rescue 80’ said this about the crew,

“the greatest act of courage that I have ever seen, and am ever likely to see, was the penultimate courage and dedication shown by the Penlee [crew] when it manoeuvred back alongside the casualty in over 60 ft breakers and rescuing four people shortly after the Penlee had been bashed on top of the casualty’s hatch covers. They were truly the bravest eight men I’ve ever seen who were also totally dedicated to upholding the highest standards of the RNLI”

This link is worth reading through, http://westcoast-news.org/story-penlee.htm

There is a programme on this tomorrow on BBC4 at 22.00.

As you guys probably already know, today (well, yesterday – written slightly after midnight) is the 27th anniversary of the Penlee Lifeboat Disaster, which resulted in the loss of the Watson class Lifeboat ‘Solomon Browne’ with all 8 crew, and all 8 on board the ‘Union Star’, at least four of which were rescued and onboard ‘Solomon Browne’.

Real Sea Kings are yellow…. :diablo:

That aside, my uncle was the RNLI inspector for the region during the Penlee saga. A very sad night that will go down in RNLI history. Dispite altzheimers its about the only thing he remembers with absolute clarity. I’m glad that that Sea King is preserved as it is – hopefully it will be the one used for the Penlee rescue.

Offended?

I take no offence from healthy discourse. I am as I have said earlier well aware of the aircraft held on 820 their mark colour scheme etc the FAAM is the best place to see this and other Air Arm aircraft, I would say that though as whilst serving with MARTSU the Naval aircraft transport section I helped put quite a few of those exhibits in to the museum. It was a wonderful job for anyone who has a passion for aviation to be involved in. Maybe I will start a thread along those lines who knows. To all at the FAAM keep up the good work. So me offended …………Nah!

Ollie, I am sorry if you took offence to my question, it was just that your post seemed to suggest you had something against this airframe being preserved, as for the radome, its what it was fitted with when it served in the Falklands as 820NAS was by then a HAS5 equipped unit, personally I would have liked to have seen it in the scheme it wore just post Falklands, all markings toned down except for the airframe serial and the Sqdn badge on the nose

Not to worry Ollie, I was being a bit cheeky anyway, as long as it is as beautifully preserved as it.

Radome 2 or 5

So you spotted the mistake then? Most of the mods applied post colour scheme change have been removed, however to totally return this airframe to a Mk 2 standard proved one step too far. It would have been possible to have retro fitted the smaller dome but but mostly time constraints didn’t allow.
There are other anomalies for the purist spotters including grey not black main rotor blades for instance. Maybe this will just stimulate more interest in this particular sea King?
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In my opinion the Sea King always looked better in this paint scheme.

But not with that radome! Stirling work there Ollie and glad she is looking so good

XZ 574

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In my opinion the Sea King always looked better in this paint scheme.

Great photo Ollie, looks fantastic! I’ll finally have to make the trip down to Yeovilton when it’s on display

No problem

I have no problem whatsoever with the preservation of this aircraft, or the fact that it was flown by the Duke of York. I worked on this aircraft whilst serving with 820 and was expressing the personal view that it will still be displayed at FAAM due moreso to the fact that it was flown by the aforementioned rather than the fact that it took part in a noteworthy rescue.

As well as Lt Cdr Russell Smith USN the rest of the crew was as follows
Lt Steve Marlow RN
S/Lt Kenneth Doherty Rn
Lacmn Martin Kennie

I can inform you that I take great pride in this aircraft being displayed in the FAAM as I was amongst the group of engineers who re-built this aircraft at Cobham Hall after the re-paint done by Westlands. The fitting out was carried out by the Aircraft Maintenance Section at H.M.S. Sultan by myself and others, so no I have no problem with it being displayed ,why should I?

As an aside 820 didn’t like to number its aircraft 016, this was due to an apparent jinx. Idents were as follows 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18,and 20.
When 20 was re-numbered to 16 it promptly ditched![ATTACH]167875[/ATTACH]