Langkawi Island - December 1995 - Tony Cunnane's Life and Times

This article was written in 1996

The 7,500 mile route to Langkawi, a holiday island off the north west coast of Malaysia, took the Team through Saudi Arabia, where the Red Arrows gave their first ever display in the Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, India and Thailand. I was not able to go to Langkawi because of a family bereavement and so a lady PRO from our Command HQ, who was going to share the onerous task with me, had to manage on her own.

This time the transit was rather more leisurely and relatively uneventful with no urgent appointments to keep. The detachment had two days off in Langkawi before a very public practice display on 4 December followed by proper displays on seven consecutive days at LIMA 95, the Langkawi International Maritime and Aeronautical Expo. Britain’s Minister for Defence Procurement, James Arbuthnot, was at Langkawi. At a press conference he was asked by a local reporter why British pilots were demonstrating the Hawk. The Royal Malaysian Air Force operates the advanced Hawk 100 two-seat trainer and the Hawk 200 single seat fighter variant. Why were the Malaysian pilots not flying the Hawks?

“The Red Arrows pilots are probably the best in the world”, said the Minister. “Everyone is keen to see them. Their aerobatics show what the Hawk aircraft can do when operated to the limits. LIMA 95 is one of the world’s finest international aviation exhibitions, an excellent shop window for British industry. One of the highlights, if not the highlight, is the Red Arrows, sponsored by 16 British companies and showing what is the very best in Britain.”

An unfortunate road accident on Langkawi  island put an end to the tour for one of the pilots and created a precedent for the Red Arrows. Three of the pilots were in a stationary hire car waiting to turn right when they were struck from behind by a lorry. The rear offside corner of the car was so badly damaged that any passenger in that seat would probably have been killed. As it was all three occupants suffered cuts and abrasions but Flight Lieutenant Sean Perrett, Red 3, suffered a complicated collar bone fracture as well. He spent several days in the brand-new Langkawi hospital before being flown home to England. During the Christmas holidays Sean was operated on and a titanium plate was bolted in to hold the two ends of bone together. Sean had flown his last sortie with the Red Arrows.

This accident should have reduced the Red Arrows to eight aircraft which would have been most unfortunate at such a prestigious event. However, travelling with the detachment were the two replacement pilots for the 1996 season, Dave Stobie the new Red 3 and Andy Offer the new Red 2. Since joining at Scampton in September they had been getting in a little practice as and when it could be programmed. Dave Stobie, was both a Qualified Flying Instructor and a Qualified Weapons Instructor. More importantly in this context, he was a former Hawk solo display pilot and had performed at over 30 displays round the UK during the summer months of 1994. The Team Leader, John Rands, in consultation with the CFS Commandant, Air Commodore Bostock, decided it would be possible to modify the first half of the display to allow Flight Lieutenant Stobie to fly in the number 3 slot but ultimately the decision was made by the Team Leader.

“It was not an instant solution,” said JR afterwards. “The plot just evolved. As always in such matters, it is a balance of risks and possibilities. If I had thought I was flying a pilot who was a danger to himself or, more importantly, to the other pilots it would have been a non-starter. But I was clear in my own mind that what we were doing was safe and sensible and the best decision available to me. In the event, Stobes’ flying was immaculate”.

Thus, Flight Lieutenant Dave Stobie became the first ever ‘green-suited’ pilot to display in public with the Red Arrows and if ever there was a difficult question for a Mastermind contestant that is it – or rather that is the answer.

There was no time to integrate Stobes into the intricate, high energy manoeuvres which form the second half of the display and so that was flown by the remaining eight pilots and Stobes made a discreet exit at the halfway point. The displays for the remainder of the tour followed this pattern.

About 1030 one morning, as the pilots were chatting to delegates at the various British exhibitions on Langkawi airfield, there was an announcement over the public address system stating that the Red Arrows would open the flying display shortly. The Team Manager, Squadron Leader Mike Williams, was dispatched to have the announcement corrected, only to be told by the organisers that the King of Malaysia was coming at 1130 to watch the Red Arrows and that they had better be ready to display! The display had originally been scheduled for late afternoon and the ground crew were some miles away relaxing in their hotel. Needless to say the Team did take off within the hour and gave a superb performance for the King.

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