Tornado down

hi, i'm italian, thanks for the video.

i translated the last part for you.

from 1.20

pilot and co-pilot: ok bombs out!
co-pilot: drop the fuel tank! drop the fuel tank!
pilot: ok... dropped!
co-pilot: 500 feets, go low! 400 feets, roll! roll!
pilot: [(...this is what i'm doing!) not in subtitles]
co-pilot: there you are, 200 feets. stay here. 200 feets, ok you are inbound. go streight. Level! Level! Level!
pilot: Roger.
co-pilot: Level. Ok...go ahead... you are low. 200 feets, full throttle! I (already) dropped the fuel tank. Ok... full throttle.
pilot: Use chaffs! Use chaffs!
co-pilot: I'm chaffing! Go ahead! Go ahead!
pilot: Use chaffs again!
co-pilot: I'm chagging a lot! Go ahead! Go low, go low! 200 feets.
pilot: Engines are still ok!
co-pilot: 130 feets, 120 feets, go ahead!

Eject, Eject!

Bye :)

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I totally agree about that. There is nothing more scary than been shoot at by AAA, specially at night when you see all of them coming at you.

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Since September the 18th 2003 Bellini is chief of staff of the Officer Training Division (Capo di Stato Maggiore della Divisione Formazione Ufficiali). He is currently Colonel, I think.
Ah, one thing, maybe I misunderstood Starfighter but, while Bellini had been transfered to the 6th FW in 1985, he assumed its command only the 25th of September 2001 (I had messed with the dates too).

I don't know anything of Cocciolone though.

At the time of the 1st Gulf War Italian Tornados couldn't be loaded with smart bombs so the standard air-to-ground ordnance was made of 5 x Mk-83 bombs.

On a side note, Gianmarco Bellini (the Tornado pilot) was (still is?) the commander of the 6th FW based at Ghedi flying Tornado (of course); Ghedi also hosts the Italian training unit for the Tornado.

I don't know if JP-233 (and the equivalent MW-1 used by Luftwaffe and Italian Tornados) was abandoned after the Gulf war, surely they have now adopted stand off weapons that make the same things without the need of the aircraft to passing above the runway. Italy have ordered 200 Storm Shadow/SCALP and RAF 900 and Luftwaffe use MBDA Apache.

Very dramatic comms, this is any fighter pilot's worst nightmare.The British lost a lot of Tornados when they used JP-233.I haven't seen a tornado loaded with this system for a long time.Did the air forced that use JP-233 stop using it since the Gulf war?

Sorry if I split the comment in two, but otherwise it wouldn't go up. this is a reply to your second comment below mine - More than anything else, I think that the whole situation was too new. Things that should have worked did not and things that shouldn't have worked did.

To make an eample, the JP-233 anti runway submunition dispenser in theory was perfect for closing runways indefinitely and, as a fact, it was. The only problem was that the pilots have to fly straight and levelled on the enemy airstrip for it to work properly. The Saudi Tornados had their run, survived, got their well deserved glory on newspapers and newsreels, then their commander IMMEDIATELY ordered them to change both ordnance and bombing tactic. The man correctly judged the whole procedure as too risky.

One thing that worked like charm had been the command structure and the supply chain. I remember that the Koreans sent a unit of C-130s to offer help. It was their first time. They wished to make their part but they were inexperienced in operation abroad. Their commander loaded some spare wheels for the undercarriage (!!!), one week of food supplies and took off to adventure. When they showed up in Iraq they were scared to death for the risk of being just a weight for the Coalition, instead they were given all they needed and in exchange they offered their work anywhere they were called.

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In that period the Italian TV filled up the newsreel with services of the same quality of toilet paper, and I loved watching at them just for some fun at the errors (in Italy we call those kind of errors 'strafalcioni').

I do not remember the exact weapon system that took down our Tornado, what I remember is that, some times after having been freed, Bellini and Cocciolone were interviewed by TV and reported of having had to fly through hell. They remember a real rain of fire. One of them even reported of having been sure of being a target for everything from small handguns upward.
The fact that, in your video, the order to drop chaffs is continuously repeated sounds like they had been locked on by radars though, and the Gun Dish of the Shilka is definitely one.

Their bad luck had been that they had been captured by the same soldiers they had been throwing bombs on. The Iraqis weren't obviously in their best mood for kindness.

Oh, as a sidenote on that TV interview, I remember one of the crewmwmber showing to the camera a piece of the canopy with something stuck in. The man stated that that piece of the airplane saved his life.

Ok I have moved the traduction of this dialogue on the correct section, Aviation videos and photos. Sorry for the error, I need to sleep more after the weekend ; )

Various Tornado of RAF and this of Italian Air Force and other aircraft were shoot down in the first 48 hours, because CENTCOM have decided to use them with the same tactics elaborated on the "cold war", and that is low altitude penetration flying through mountains, valleys, hills and tree, of est Europe, but this is a bad idea in IRAQ that is a flat desert and they were hit by anti-aircraft defense. Then they understand that, and change completely the tactics after 48 hours, with attack by medium and high altitude and this functioned.

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You are well informed, do you know what is exactly the weapons that have shoot down them? On the web I have found that probably they are hit by a ZSU-23 Shilka, as I have written on the forum.

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Ejected, Captured by Iraqi forces, released on March 3, 1991. Bellini was awarded the silver Medal for Military Valor for his actions during Desert Storm and I think that Cocciolone has been promoted to Commander of the 'Sesto Stormo', Ghedi.

It has been Italy's first and last mission beyond the Iraqi FEBA... CENTCOM decided that, since our pilots were wilful but our hardware was second choice, it was better if we limited ourselves to air support... It was the same CENTCOM that sent A-10 into deep penetration strike mission that left them butchered. Teething problems, I presume.

wow did they eject and then captured or what

Sorry, I have made an error, the traduction is erroneously on the section military and aviation news, a click error, sorry.

Yes of course, they were captured, practically by the same soldiers they have bombed some seconds before they were shot down. That is a very dangerous situation! They passed an hard period as prisoners and at the end of the war they are free.

did they survive?

Ok to solve the problem I have uploaded the traduction on the forums, in the section Aviation videos and photos, the name of the thread is: Tornado down video traduction.

Probably there is a problem to post a long comment, so I try to upload it in separated parts.

Sorry I have some problems to upload the traduction, I hope to upload it in the next hours, I have many problems with Patrick's aviation website in the last month, also to upload a simple comment.

I don't know even a word from his speech :)

what would you not do for motherland and for peace....