Departure from Ukraine - Tony Cunnane's Life and Times

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Departure from Ukraine

Monday 25 June dawned mild and sunny with no sign of the clouds and rain that had threatened to ruin the Red Arrows displays on the previous two days. Whilst waiting to board the coaches from Kiev to Borispol, Wing Commander David Guest, the Hercules Captain, told me that his crew had spent the previous evening at the house of the Borispol Base Commander having dinner. Wing Commander Guest had produced a bottle of Glenfiddich for the Colonel to try. "Very like Russian vodka to my mind", said the Colonel. David was not sure whether that was a compliment or not.

This motley gathering of Soviets and Brits at Borispol are waiting to see us off on our departure for Hungary. The Reds' Adjutant in the blue suit flying suit and the Reds' guest doctor on the far right, are both wearing Soviet caps they had borrowed for this photo opportunity.The chap in the centre was, we think, the KGB man; the three on the left were Soviet soldiers.

Out on the airfield while the official farewells were being made, I found that I still had a 10 rouble note in my possession. I could have changed it back into Sterling with the Assistant Air Attaché but, since it was worth barely £1, I decided instead to give it to one of the Soviet guards who had been protecting our aircraft overnight. The young guard quickly stuffed the note inside his jacket. I told John Elliot what I had done.

"You shouldn’t have done that, Tony," he said earnestly. "That guard will be in serious trouble if he’s found with a 10 rouble note in his possession because it’s more than he earns in a month. They have nothing to spend money on and his officers will assume he has stolen it."

The BAe 125 and the Reds taxied out at 09.50 local time for a take off exactly on schedule at 10.00hrs for the flight to Budapest. On the climb it had been arranged for the Hawks to join up in close formation on either wing of the BAe 125 for photographic purposes.

The late Arthur Gibson, the well-known and sadly missed freelance film-maker, photographer, and friend of the Red Arrows for many years, had moved from Air Marshal Pilkington’s VIP Andover to the BAe 125 for this purpose. I took the picture of Arthur (above) while he was photographing the Red Arrows on the port side and then he moved to one side so that I could take my own snap (below). Click on either to pop up larger versions.

Soon after the formation had levelled off at around 30,000 feet some of the Hawks appeared on the starboard side of the aircraft and all six passengers in the BAe 125 moved over to that side to get a good view. We heard an anguished shout from the flight deck and Corporal Morgan came rushing back to see what was happening.

The auto-pilot had failed to cope with the rapid change of lateral trim and the co-pilot flying in the left hand seat had fought to stop the aircraft rolling to the right. Before the steward could report back to the co-pilot what was happening, we noticed more Hawks coming up on the port side and the inevitable happened – an undemanded roll to the left. We passengers became rather better behaved after that.

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