Operation Paraquet 1982

'Humphrey' the Westland Wessex HAS.3 

SAS troops board the Commando Wessex HU.5 

Although dressed in white Arctic clothing, after exposure to a night of sub-zero temperatures, gale force winds and driving snow, the SAS troops were already in varying stages of hypothermia. 

Yankee Foxtrot, with Tidd at the controls and with half the frozen soldiers safely loaded, was the first to pull up into the icy but clear sky, when, without warning, it was enveloped in a tidal wave of a snow shower.  

In an attempt to return to the landing zone, the tail and left wheel of the Wessex hit the snow at about thirty knots, bringing the aircraft crashing down on its left side and sliding it onwards for fifty yards.  

Tidd slid open the flimsy cockpit window and clambered up onto the side of the aircraft 

Out on the snow, the soldiers were divided between the two remaining helicopters. With ten people now crammed into the Wessex 3 and fourteen in the Wessex 5, the depleted formation rose to the hover once again.  

As Stanley navigated over the ridge of the glacier with the use of Humphrey's Wessex 3 radar, Georgeson in Yankee Alpha followed a few rotor lengths behind. Then, another ferocious snowstorm hit the formation just at the wrong moment, barely ten seconds after launch.  

Yankee Alpha's starboard wheel caught in a hidden and small ice crevasse and the aircraft toppled over onto its side. While it was amazing that no one was severely injured, Yankee Alpha was not so lucky, the second and last troop carrying Wessex was out of action. 

With no radio contact, an overloaded helicopter and appalling weather conditions, there was nothing Stanley could do but to return to HMS Antrim 

After Humphrey received a thorough safety check by the engineers, Stanley decided to have another go at rescuing the survivors.