Sunny Day but Sad Futures Ahead
This image was taken in the Arabian Sea whilst HMS Ardent was heading towards the Gulf of Oman at the beginning of the first full Operation Armilla deployment in late 1980. The helicopter was ranged on the flight-deck ready for delivering the Captain to the USS Independence (CV-62) for discussions later that afternoon.
The ship herself had just over a year of life left. During the Falklands War, on 21 May 1982 she would be sunk after being hit by multiple bombs in and near the stern, which killed 22 men. This would be the most men lost in any of the ships sunk during the conflict.
The Lynx HAS.2 helicopter would last a few years more. XZ 244 would be modernised into the HAS.3 variant and eventually the HAS.3GM variant, operating from HMS Brilliant during the late 1980s tanker war in the Persian Gulf. On 14 May 1989, XZ244 crashed near Mombasa, Kenya, while en route from the ship to the city's airport. A side door was opened in flight, but it turned out that stoppers had not been fitted; the door came completely off and collided with the tail rotor, resulting in the aircraft splitting in half and the death of all nine personnel on board.
Sunny Day but Sad Futures Ahead
This image was taken in the Arabian Sea whilst HMS Ardent was heading towards the Gulf of Oman at the beginning of the first full Operation Armilla deployment in late 1980. The helicopter was ranged on the flight-deck ready for delivering the Captain to the USS Independence (CV-62) for discussions later that afternoon.
The ship herself had just over a year of life left. During the Falklands War, on 21 May 1982 she would be sunk after being hit by multiple bombs in and near the stern, which killed 22 men. This would be the most men lost in any of the ships sunk during the conflict.
The Lynx HAS.2 helicopter would last a few years more. XZ 244 would be modernised into the HAS.3 variant and eventually the HAS.3GM variant, operating from HMS Brilliant during the late 1980s tanker war in the Persian Gulf. On 14 May 1989, XZ244 crashed near Mombasa, Kenya, while en route from the ship to the city's airport. A side door was opened in flight, but it turned out that stoppers had not been fitted; the door came completely off and collided with the tail rotor, resulting in the aircraft splitting in half and the death of all nine personnel on board.