Question for spanish or gibraltarians

[SHAM]

I happened to be sitting one morning real early in Algeciras looking over towards Gib, the sun was hardly up. And a plane flying quite low crossed the bay between Algeciras and Gibi in a north south direction, dark grey in colour. It then headed off out into the meddy, then appeared comming from the spanish main land same height between Gib and Algeciras, kinda north south direction. And three guys in black dropped out of it with black chutes and dropped into the bay, no boats to pick them up, too far out to make them out after they hit the water. The plane went off out into the meddy again and circled around three times dropped three guys three more times and then dropped four, all in black gear with black chutes. No boats picking them up. The thing was that the bay is very busy with fast ferries zooming around the place.

Anyway the question is..Was wondering if any of the spanish or gibraltarians had seen it before and wondering if they were brits joining a sub or swimming to gib or spanish swimming to spain?

[Marmot1]

I happened to be sitting one morning real early in Algeciras looking over towards Gib, the sun was hardly up. And a plane flying quite low crossed the bay between Algeciras and Gibi in a north south direction, dark grey in colour. It then headed off out into the meddy, then appeared comming from the spanish main land same height between Gib and Algeciras, kinda north south direction. And three guys in black dropped out of it with black chutes and dropped into the bay, no boats to pick them up, too far out to make them out after they hit the water. The plane went off out into the meddy again and circled around three times dropped three guys three more times and then dropped four, all in black gear with black chutes. No boats picking them up. The thing was that the bay is very busy with fast ferries zooming around the place.

Anyway the question is..Was wondering if any of the spanish or gibraltarians had seen it before and wondering if they were brits joining a sub or swimming to gib or spanish swimming to spain?

DELTA!!!! woot

[SHAM]

I happened to be sitting one morning real early in Algeciras looking over towards Gib, the sun was hardly up. And a plane flying quite low crossed the bay between Algeciras and Gibi in a north south direction, dark grey in colour. It then headed off out into the meddy, then appeared comming from the spanish main land same height between Gib and Algeciras, kinda north south direction. And three guys in black dropped out of it with black chutes and dropped into the bay, no boats to pick them up, too far out to make them out after they hit the water. The plane went off out into the meddy again and circled around three times dropped three guys three more times and then dropped four, all in black gear with black chutes. No boats picking them up. The thing was that the bay is very busy with fast ferries zooming around the place.

Anyway the question is..Was wondering if any of the spanish or gibraltarians had seen it before and wondering if they were brits joining a sub or swimming to gib or spanish swimming to spain?

DELTA!!!! woot


Why did that never enter my mind p-)

[MARINO]

Spanish SF use to do that, but not in the middle of Algeciras Bay( i'm not sure). For Brits i don't know.

[SHAM]

Spanish SF use to do that, but not in the middle of Algeciras Bay( i'm not sure). For Brits i don't know.

With all the fast ferries there its not the safest place to go for a dip, the guys i was with at the time mentioned mi6?

[king_nothing100]

DELTA?

You obviously don't know that one of them would be James Bond on exercise the last one in 1987 went wrong when a rouge agent tried to kill him on the exercise. Remember he parachuted onto that boat with that woman. Think they made a film about it? rofl

[SHAM]

Dam them "rouge" agents! :cantbeli:

[DeltaWhisky58]

Dam them "rouge" agents! :cantbeli:

And I thought he said black suits...............pink diving suits must be really good cammo (not).

[SHAM]

Everyone is a commedian. any spaniards or gibraltarians know anything about it?

[Loco]

Sham, Algeciras´s waters are mostly spanish, and the middle of the bay is spanish territory, of course. If the divers dropped out of an helicopter in the middle of the bay, very probably were spanish, and if the helicopter came from spanish mainland maybe they came from some point in Malaga province. Posibly british divers train in the same waters sometimes, with or without licence, because british have the bad habit of doing things abroad they wouldn´t do at home, but using a british helicopter over spanish waters would be an excesive abuse and if they dive there, they will do it jumping out a boat, except in the case this was a british-spanish training, but as you say, it looks as it isn´t that situation.
About the joke of "pink suits", well, really they aren´t good cammo out of the water, but it would be stupid walking down the street wearing a diving suit, I´m afraid. But once you´re diving, you know that red and pink colours are almost invisible under a depth of -3meters, and you really can´t see red colour under -15 meters.

[SHAM]

Sham, Algeciras´s waters are mostly spanish, and the middle of the bay is spanish territory, of course. If the divers dropped out of an helicopter in the middle of the bay, very probably were spanish, and if the helicopter came from spanish mainland maybe they came from some point in Malaga province. Posibly british divers train in the same waters sometimes, with or without licence, because british have the bad habit of doing things abroad they wouldn´t do at home, but using a british helicopter over spanish waters would be an excesive abuse and if they dive there, they will do it jumping out a boat, except in the case this was a british-spanish training, but as you say, it looks as it isn´t that situation.
About the joke of "pink suits", well, really they aren´t good cammo out of the water, but it would be stupid walking down the street wearing a diving suit, I´m afraid. But once you´re diving, you know that red and pink colours are almost invisible under a depth of -3meters, and you really can´t see red colour under -15 meters.

It was an airplane..and the plane seemed to take off from the area of the flat bit where gib joins the mainland.

[DeltaWhisky58]

It was an airplane..and the plane seemed to take off from the area of the flat bit where gib joins the mainland.

Well that sounds like the location of the RAF Base/Gibraltar airfield whose runways runs across the causeway joining "The Rock" to the mainland.

Did you see what kind of aircraft it was?

[SHAM]

no i was too far away...it was dark grey...the sun wasnt above the horrizon...didnt realy take any notice when it took off other than it was low going across the bay..then kinda woke up when little black figures started dropping out of it. i would say it wasnt that big and didnt look like a herc. looked kinda comercial passenger diameter...but not very long.

[DeltaWhisky58]

Very odd - the only fixed wing a/c the British Military routinely jump out of is the C-130K/J, so if it wasn't one of those, what was it?

Puzzling. It would be interesting to see if any of the many aircraft spotter's website could shed any light on a/c movements at Gib on that day.

[oldsoak]

We do have BN Islanders for surveillance/liason and have ,IIRC, Shorts Skyvan for para drops when the balloon jumps got binned. Both are twin turboprobs. The Islanders are painted grey.

[SHAM]

looked like a twin prob alright..but was quite far away..didnt look that big.

[DeltaWhisky58]

Yes, both the RAF and AAC have the Islander, but AFAIK both have too much electronic kit in them to accommodate 16 jumpers. The Skyvans used for para training are Brit civvy registered and blue/white in colour.

The mystery deepens.

[Lazy Lob]

I never para dropped but we trained (RN) in underwater navigation in the area near Gib and La Linea etc. No problems with the ferries. Quite good fun in fact with them hacking along just a few metres above our heads.

[SHAM]

If i hadnt been busy at the time i coulda went and got my camera, but every time it went past i didnt think it would come back again as it did quite a large circle..i.e. it went out of sight out into the meddy before comming back around from the north.

[rafaelcb]

UOE (Armada SF) use helicopters. This leaves either E.T. SF or EdA SF(EZAPAC).

Could you see if the divers jumped from the side of the plane or from the back?

Could any of these be the plane?
http://www.ejercitodelaire.mde.es/(G)Publicaciones/Paginas_WEB_Internet/ImgWeb.nsf/38761672CD5FE538C1256BC9004FE557/2C3F9E3B8198D7A5C1256C5C00592356/$File/12G.jpg

http://www.ejercitodelaire.mde.es/(G)Publicaciones/Paginas_Web_Internet/InetFiUdWeb.nsf/ec492c24e8695c7fc1256c37004a08f4/106ac921a874904ec1256de4003b8601/$File/C-212perfilcifuentes.jpg

[SHAM]

looked a bit like the top pic...except longer and didnt have any large wheel wells...looked sleek..but i was quite far away. Didnt notice them jumping from the side so maybe it was from the rear. That top pic could well be it, but for some reason i thought it looked more commercial, u know..wings coming from the bottom of the fuselage, and it was too far away to make out props. maybe they jumped from the door on the side away from me. i shoulda got my cam.