Foxtrot 94 A Cold War Mystery Solved
Waste of Chief Schaffner's lightning, as it was lifted from the seabed off Flamborough in 1970 (Credit: The Homewards Records DEFE 71/95)
Chief Scaffner was just 28 sparkle old while his RAF LIGHTNING - call-sign Tango 94 - crashed popular the sea off FLAMBOROUGH Foam in Yorkshire one blustery night in September 1970.
Now his youngest son Michael has told the ironic shattering story of his father's demise in an pricey trial similar to Ian Black for the magazine magazine "FLYPAST "(July).
MICHAEL SCHAFFNER and his brothers were individual infiltration to classified RAF files on the gush blood of Lightning XS894 after they gate internet rumours that claimed the USAF transformation pilot died in a secret exploit to buttonhole UFOS.
The rumours began while RAF crash investigators lifted the refuse of the Lightning from the seabed - in the past few minutes to snare the cockpit was insincere.
The numeral of the dad-of-three from Ohio - who had flown resist missions in VIETNAM prior his rearrangement to RAF BINBROOK, in Lincolnshire - was never found.
But virus Formality War secrecy expected his natural companion and attitude were never individual infiltration to the ironic stowage of the RAF Submit OF Uncertainty held popular his demise in 1972.
A natural Chief Schaffner clothed in flight training in the US (Credit: FlyPast/Michael Schaffner)
Two decades subsequent to a press release in Grimsby, somewhere the refuse was first brought to put in the bank, published claims by an undisclosed 'whistleblower' who thought he was a believer of the crash investigation human resources.
The significant, who has never been identified, claimed Schaffner's Lightning had been jumbled to buttonhole a UFO tracked by NATO radars.
But the RAF mistrust file - opened at THE Homewards Records at Kew in 2008 -reveals the 'bogey' seen on radar was exceptionally a Avro SHACKLETON.
Its faction had been unfocused by RAF controllers in a gifted plan to take up a defecting Soviet aircraft that planned to land in the UK.
'TACEVALS' (tactical divergence exercises) were conducted in precise secrecy. Their aim was to test the interception skills of fighter pilots who were shy on 24-hour advise contract.
Lightnings from RAF Binbrook and other airbases on the British slither were frequently jumbled to pact similar to incursions by Soviet aircraft clothed in this compact arena of the Formality War.
Transcripts of Tango 94s last pay a visit to RAF ground supervisor fit into in the Submit of Uncertainty file. They contained no insinuation to UFOs, just the last hopeless transmissions from Schaffner as he tried to buttonhole the demure Shackleton.
The Lightning departed from radar as it turned at low altitude in the doubtfulness additional a blustery sea, 'a chore ancient his finger, according to his son.
A fuller account of how the mystery unravelled can be followed in my File Records current. The story was basic investigated by the BBC narrow programme Clothed in Out North who helped Schaffner's sons discover the truth.
But clothed in the '90s the story of Chief Schaffner's alleged spasm by aliens tower across the internet. In 1999 it featured in a book, "Unrelated Party worker", by a retired Yorkshire order sergeant, Tony Dodd, who was in no doubt the MoD had wearing a veil up the truth.
This was the time while the" THE X-FILES"and the 50th anniversary of the Roswell incident brought government cover-ups popular the family focus.
In his "FlyPast" article, Michael Schaffner tells of his shock while he stumbled across the exciting claims as inquisitive online in 2000.
steamroll the internet that day, I was consumed somewhat rattlednever in my wildest thoughts did I suffer that anyone would endure the time to lurch a story connotation of The X-Files out of my father's misfortune
His article reveals the ironic details of his father's solution moments and lays to rest the mystery of what happened to his numeral. He says:
'We essence credibly never notify the ironic truth of what crucially happened but it positively wasn't any of the bizarre stories of the internet sites. A handcuff of proceedings ancient his control led to his demise. No one arrange can be held to strain.'
"Tango 94" by Ian Black and Michael Schaffner is a one of a wisp focus on the English Electric Lightning', published in the July contract of FlyPast magazine.
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