Westland Wessex – XS523

Lee and Albert, Many Thanks for this chaps!

847 Sqn ‘A’ Flt to South Atlantic in Engadine 10 May 1982. Transferred to 845 Sqn detachment in the Falklands before departing for the UK in MV Astronomer 14 Nov 1982.

Working on the companion volume to “Fleet Air Arm Fixed-Wing Aircraft Since 1946” (Air-Britain) at the moment, covering all FAA Rotary-Wing types, and all Wessex histories will be contained therein. Hopefully will be available sometime next year.

Thanks for the last Dave, do you know the date and what ship she was attached to?

XS523 joined 707 Sqn on 27/4/82 in the blue/dayglo SAR scheme. It was repainted 5/5/82 in the low-viz scheme and coded ‘XJ’ prior to being transferred to 847 Sqn on 6/5/82. It was allotted to ‘A’ Flight and was flown aboard HMS Engadine at Devonport on 9/5/82 from Yeovilton before sailing for the South Atlantic on 10/5/82. It was transferred to 845 Sqn. and became part of the Falkland Islands Detachment on 27/9/82. It returned aboard ‘Astronomer’ on 14/11/82, arriviing back at Yeovilton on 5/12/82.
Any more required? Names of pilots that flew it perhaps :rolleyes:

Thanks for the last Dave, do you know the date and what ship she was attached to?

She did indeed serve during the Falklands War down on the islands.

Thanks Jag rigger, I was interested to see if it ever served in the Falklands war, thanks again for the info.

http://www.ukserials.com has it delivered as 4 March 1965

And a quick look on Google can fill in some blanks:

Sep 1968 she was ‘S’ with 845 NAS

1980 ‘LS810’ with 781 NAS

and looks like she ended up as ‘824’ with 771 NAS before being allocated maintenance serial A2692

Ian