1994 British Army Lynx shootdown

(Redirected from Crossmaglen mortar attack (1994)) IRA helicopter shootdown in Northern Ireland

1994 British Army Lynx shootdown
Part of the Troubles
A British Army Lynx helicopter

Location	Crossmaglen, County Armagh, Northern Ireland
Coordinates	54°4′33.5″N 6°36′32″W / 54.075972°N 6.60889°W / 54.075972; -6.60889
Date	19 March 1994 20:27 (GMT)
Target	British Army base
Attack type	Mortar
Injured	4
Perpetrator	Provisional IRA

v t e The Troubles in Ireland
1960s and 1970s Battle of the Bogside/1969 riots RTÉ bombing Operation Banner Battle of St Matthew's Falls Curfew Crossmaglen bombing Scottish soldiers' killings Operation Demetrius Ballymurphy massacre Newry killings Red Lion Pub bombing McGurk's Bar bombing Balmoral showroom bombing Bloody Sunday Abercorn Restaurant bombing Donegall St bombing Battle at Springmartin Dungiven ambush Battle of Lenadoon Springhill massacre Bloody Friday Operation Motorman Claudy bombing Newry customs bombing Sanaghanroe attack Benny's Bar bombing Annie's Bar massacre Belturbet bombing Dublin bombings New Lodge Six shooting Coleraine bombings Rose & Crown Bar bombing Clogher barracks attack Dublin & Monaghan bombings Mountainview Tavern attack Bleary Darts Club shooting Strand Bar bombing Forkhill beer keg bomb Miami Showband killings Bayardo Bar attack Tullyvallen massacre October 1975 attacks Drummuckavall ambush Dublin Airport bombing Dundalk & Silverbridge attacks Central Bar bombing Reavey and O'Dowd killings Kingsmill massacre Castleblayney bombing Hillcrest Bar bombing Flagstaff Hill incident Charlemont pub attacks Store Bar shooting Chlorane Bar attack Ramble Inn attack Stag Inn attack Andersonstown incident Garryhinch ambush 1976 Balmoral bombing Jonesborough Gazelle shootdown La Mon restaurant bombing Warrenpoint ambush Dungannon land mine attack 1980s Dunmurry train bombing Lough Foyle attacks Altnaveigh landmine attack Glasdrumman ambush Divis Flats bombing Droppin Well bombing Ballygawley land mine attack Darkley killings Kesh ambush Strabane ambush Newry mortar attack Ballygawley barracks attack Birches barracks attack Clontibret invasion Loughgall ambush Remembrance Day bombing Milltown Cemetery attack Corporals killings Avenue Bar shooting Lisburn van bombing Aughanduff Lynx shootdown Ballygawley bus bombing Drumnakilly ambush Jonesborough ambush Derryard checkpoint attack 1990s Derrygorry Gazelle shootdown Downpatrick landmine attack Operation Conservation Armagh City roadside bombing Fort Victoria Proxy bombings Lough Neagh ambush Silverbridge Lynx shootdown Mullacreevie ambush Cappagh killings Craigavon mobile shop killings Glenanne barracks bombing Coagh ambush Musgrave Park Hospital bombing Craigavon Hyster killings Teebane bombing Sinn Féin Headquarters shooting Sean Graham bookmakers' shooting Clonoe ambush Cloghoge checkpoint attack Coalisland riots South Armagh sniper campaign Forensic Lab bombing James Murray's bookmakers attack Castlerock killings Cullaville occupation Battle of Newry Road Shankill Road bombing Greysteel massacre Fivemiletown ambush Crossmaglen Lynx shootdown 1994 Shankill Road killings Loughinisland massacre Killeeshil ambush Drumcree conflict Thiepval barracks bombing Coalisland attack 1997 riots Quinn brothers' killings Banbridge bombing Omagh bombing See also: The Troubles in Britain & Europe, Assassinations during the Troubles, and Loyalist feud

The Troubles
in Ireland

1960s and 1970s

1980s

1990s

On 19 March 1994, a British Army Lynx helicopter was shot down by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Northern Ireland. A unit of the IRA's South Armagh Brigade fired a heavy improvised mortar at the British Army base in Crossmaglen, County Armagh. The mortar round hit and shot down the helicopter, serial number ZD275, while it was hovering over the helipad. Three British soldiers and a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) member were wounded.

Background

Since the 1970s, the IRA developed a series of home-made mortars. The goal was to produce devices to be used as "stand-off" weapons, capable of being launched from safe ranges upon police or military outposts and easy to conceal on dead-ground. The development by the provisionals of the Mark 10 mortar multiple-launched mortar led the IRA South Armagh Brigade to conceive the idea of using this type of weapon to engage helicopters as they were hovering over border bases. On 22 June 1983, the IRA attempted to shoot down a Wessex helicopter with a battery of Mark 10 improvised mortars over Crossmaglen, County Armagh. The pilot was forced to undertake an evasive manoeuvre, dropping the helicopter's cargo into the street below. Four mortars failed to explode and the rest landed in the vicinity of the base, causing some damage and slightly injuring a British soldier. A subsequent investigation found that if the mortar base plate had been aligned "five to ten degrees" differently the projectiles likely would have hit the helicopter.

The different improvised mortar designs evolved in 1992 into the Mark 15 mortar, widely known as the "barrack buster". The mortar shell consisted of a one metre long metal propane cylinder with a diameter of 36 cm that contained around 70 kg of home-made explosives and with a range between 75 and 275 m. The cylinder was an adaptation of a commercial 'Kosangas' gas cylinder for heating and cooking gas used in rural areas in Ireland. The first use of the "barrack buster" took place on 7 December 1992 against a joint RUC/British Army base in Ballygawley, County Tyrone. On 11 June 1993, there was a previous IRA bid to shoot down a Puma helicopter taking off from the Crossmaglen base with a Mark 15 mortar. The barrack buster, fired from the back of a local baker's delivery van, exploded on the helipad shortly after the pilot had managed to take off. Two Lynx helicopters escorting the Puma were unable to prevent the attack. The IRA action was carried out to coincide with a one-day visit to Northern Ireland by Queen Elizabeth.

The attack

On the evening of 19 March 1994, a Lynx helicopter, serial number ZD275, was in the process of landing at the large British Army base in Crossmaglen. Meanwhile, an IRA unit had mounted a Mark 15 mortar on a tractor, concealed behind bales of hay. The tractor was parked 150 yards (140 m) from the intended target, on waste ground. At 20:27, there was a sudden blackout across Crossmaglen's square and at the same time, a single mortar shell was lobbed into the barracks. The IRA had used the mains for the collapsing circuit of the firing pack, turning off the street's power supply and allowing the mortar's own battery to trigger the launcher. When the Lynx was hovering 100 feet (30 m) over the helipad, the mortar round hit the aircraft on the tail's boom, which was severed from the fuselage. The machine spun out of control, but the pilot was able to crash-land the Lynx inside the base. A Grenadier Guards' patrol spotted the resulting huge orange fireball from a mile away. Three members of the crew managed to get out with minor injuries, but a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary was trapped inside the blazing wreckage. The constable was rescued just before the fuel tanks and the ammunition started to explode.

Author Toby Harnden described the incident as the most successful IRA operation against a helicopter in the course of the Troubles.

Aftermath

After the incident, the IRA and Sinn Féin were criticised by the Social Democratic and Labour Party Member of the Parliament for the area Seamus Mallon, who said:

God knows how many people could have been killed. When you realise this mortar was lobbed over a number of houses it brings home the enormity of the danger so many people faced. Yet again you have Sinn Féin talking peace in the morning and carrying out these murderous attacks through the IRA in the evening.

John Fee, a local SDLP councillor who described the attack as "an act of lunacy", was later severely beaten by three men, one of them hooded and wearing military-style gear, outside his home. The IRA denied responsibility. Fee was admitted to hospital with broken legs, broken ribs and head injuries.

Corporal Robert Tomlinson of the Royal Military Police was awarded the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service for his part in coming to the aid of the wounded constable and organising his medical evacuation.

Corporal Wayne Cuckson of the Royal Logistic Corps was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal for dragging the wounded constable out of the crashed aircraft. Cuckson, who reached the rank of Warrant Officer Class Two, died on 6 April 2011 in a crash while driving his motorcycle between Abingdon and Oxford.

There was a second mortar attack on a British military helicopter on 12 July 1994, at Newtownhamilton, when an RAF Puma carrying 11 soldiers and an RUC constable crash-landed on a soccer pitch after its tail was hit by shrapnel from a near-miss by another Mark 15 mortar launched from a tractor. The helicopter was lifting off from the local military base. No serious injuries were reported. The Puma, serial number XW225, sustained Category 3 or Category 4 damage on the RAF scale. After returning to service, the machine was definitively written off and scrapped after suffering another, this time deadly, crash-landing in Germany on 15 February 1997.

The downing of two helicopters by mortar fire, along with the increasing sniper activity of the IRA, was both a morale and military blow to the British forces in south County Armagh.

Notes

"UK Military Aircraft Losses - 1994". www.ukserials.com. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
Geraghty, p. 187
Taylor (2018)
Geraghty, p. 193
The Irish Emigrant, 1 February 1993
Ryder, p. 256
Taylor (2018)
^ Harnden, p. 398
Geraghty, pp. 198–199
English & Oppenheimer, p. 233
^ "MONTH IN FOCUS", Police Beat, Volume 16 No. 4, Police Federation for Northern Ireland, 1994
Geraghty, p. 199
"Royal Military Police". Retrieved 31 July 2014.
Abingdon crash victim was soldier. BBC News, 15 April 2011.
Taylor (2018)
IRA downs British Helicopter The Telegraph, 13 July 1994
Air pictorial: journal of the Air League, Volumen 59, p. 196, 1997
"UK Military Aircraft Losses - 1997". www.ukserials.com. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
"Aircraft Accident to Royal Air Force Puma HC1 XW225" (PDF). ukserials.com. Minister of Defence - Military Aircraft Accident Summary. August 1999. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
Harnden, p. 399

References

English, Richard and Oppenheimer, A. R. (2009). IRA, the Bombs and the Bullets: A History of Deadly Ingenuity. Irish Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-7165-2895-1
Geraghty, Tony (2000). The Irish War. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-00-255617-0
Harnden, Toby (2000). Bandit Country: The IRA and South Armagh. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-71736-X
Ryder, Chris (2005). A Special Kind of Courage: 321 EOD Squadron – Battling the Bombers, Methuen. ISBN 0-413-77223-3
Taylor, Steven (2018). Air War Northern Ireland: Britain's Air Arms and the 'Bandit Country' of South Armagh, Operation Banner 1969–2007. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-5267-2155-6.

Provisional Irish Republican Army

General

Organisation

Actions

1970–1979	Battle of St Matthew's Falls Curfew 1970 Crossmaglen bombing Scottish soldiers' killings Red Lion bombing Balmoral showroom bombing Abercorn bombing Donegall Street bombing Battle at Springmartin Battle of Lenadoon Bloody Friday Claudy bombing Newry customs bombing Old Bailey bombing Honey Trap killings King's Cross & Euston bombings Coleraine bombings 1973 Westminster bombing M62 bombing Clogher attack Houses of Parliament bombing Tower of London bombing Guildford pub bombings Harrow School bombing Brooks's Club bombing Woolwich pub bombing British Airways bombing attempt Birmingham pub bombings London pillar box bombings Talbot Arms bombing Bristol bombing Telephone exchange bombings 1974 Oxford Street bombing Carlton Tower & Portman Hotel shootings Mountainview attack Bayardo Bar attack Forkhill attack Caterham Arms bombing Tullyvallen massacre London Hilton bombing Piccadilly bombing Trattoria Fiore bombing Scott's Oyster Bar bombing Walton's Restaurant bombing Drummuckavall ambush Balcombe Street siege Kingsmill massacre West Ham station attack Olympia bombing Store bar shooting Stag Inn attack Garryhinch ambush Jonesborough Gazelle downing La Mon restaurant bombing Crossmaglen ambush Warrenpoint ambush Brussels bombing Dungannon attack
1980–1989	Dunmurry train bombing Lough Foyle attacks Glasdrumman ambush 1981 Bessbrook attack Chelsea Barracks bombing Hyde Park & Regent's Park bombings Harrods bombing Royal Artillery Barracks bombing Brighton hotel bombing Ballygawley land mine attack Newry mortar attack Ballygawley attack Enniskillen mortar attack RUC Birches barracks attack Rheindahlen bombing Loughgall ambush Operation Flavius Corporals killings Lisburn bombing Aughanduff Lynx shootdown 1988 Netherlands attacks Glamorgan barracks bombing Inglis Barracks bombing Ballygawley bus bombing Jonesborough ambush Clive Barracks bombing Deal barracks bombing Mayobridge attack Derryard attack
1990–1991	Derrygorry Gazelle downing South Armagh sniper Downpatrick roadside bomb Operation Conservation 1990 Wembley bombing Carlton Club bombing London Stock Exchange bombing Honourable Artillery Company bombing Lichfield gun attack RFA Fort Victoria bombing Proxy bombings Downing Street mortar attack Paddington & Victoria station bombings Mullacreevie ambush Glenanne barracks bombing Coagh ambush Musgrave Park Hospital bombing Crumlin Road Prison bombing
1992–1997	Teebane bombing Clonoe ambush London Bridge bombing Staples Cnr bombing Baltic Exchange bombing Sussex Arms bombing Cloghoge attack Coalisland riots Forensic Science Laboratory bombing Stoke Newington Road bomb 1992 Manchester bombing Night of the Long Knives 1993 Harrods bombing Warrington bombings Cullaville occupation Camden bombing Bishopsgate bombing Finchley Road bombings Battle of Newry Road Shankill Road bombing 1993 Fivemiletown ambush Heathrow attacks Crossmaglen Lynx downing Drumcree conflict Docklands bombing Aldwych bus bombing 1996 Manchester bombing Hammersmith Bridge bombing Osnabrück mortar attack Thiepval barracks bombing Coalisland attack 1997 Northern Ireland riots

Personalities
(Volunteers)

Espionage and
Supergrasses

Eamon Collins
Denis Donaldson
Joseph Fenton
Kevin Fulton
Raymond Gilmour
Martin McGartland
Sean O'Callaghan
Freddie Scappaticci (allegedly "Stakeknife")

Associates

Derivatives

Prominent
killings

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in 1994 (1994)
Jan 3 Baikal Airlines Flight 130Jan 7 United Express Flight 6291Feb 24 Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 9045Feb 28 Banja Luka incidentMar 8 Indira Gandhi Airport collisionMar 17 Iranian Air Force C-130 shootdownMar 19 British Army Lynx shootdownMar 23 Aeroflot Flight 593Mar 23 Green Ramp disasterApr 4 KLM Cityhopper Flight 433Apr 6 Assassination of Habyarimana and NtaryamiraApr 7 Federal Express Flight 705Apr 14 Black Hawk shootdownApr 24 South Pacific Airmotive DC-3 crashApr 26 China Airlines Flight 140Jun 2 Mull of Kintyre Chinook crashJun 6 China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303Jun 24 Fairchild Air Force Base B-52 crashJun 30 Airbus Industrie Flight 129Jul 1 Air Mauritanie Flight 625Jul 2 USAir Flight 1016Jul 19 Alas Chiricanas Flight 00901Aug 10 Korean Air Flight 2033Aug 21 Royal Air Maroc Flight 630Sep 8 USAir Flight 427Sep 18 1994 Oriental Airlines crashSep 26 Vanavara air disasterOct 12 Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 746Oct 31 American Eagle Flight 4184Nov 3 SAS Flight 347Nov 22 TWA Flight 427Dec 11 Philippine Airlines Flight 434Dec 13 Flagship Airlines Flight 3379Dec 19 Nigeria Airways Flight 9805Dec 21 Air Algérie Flight 702PDec 24 Air France Flight 8969Dec 29 Turkish Airlines Flight 278
1993 ◄ ► 1995

Aviation accidents and incidents in 1994 (1994)

Jan 3 Baikal Airlines Flight 130Jan 7 United Express Flight 6291Feb 24 Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 9045Feb 28 Banja Luka incidentMar 8 Indira Gandhi Airport collisionMar 17 Iranian Air Force C-130 shootdownMar 19 British Army Lynx shootdownMar 23 Aeroflot Flight 593Mar 23 Green Ramp disasterApr 4 KLM Cityhopper Flight 433Apr 6 Assassination of Habyarimana and NtaryamiraApr 7 Federal Express Flight 705Apr 14 Black Hawk shootdownApr 24 South Pacific Airmotive DC-3 crashApr 26 China Airlines Flight 140Jun 2 Mull of Kintyre Chinook crashJun 6 China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303Jun 24 Fairchild Air Force Base B-52 crashJun 30 Airbus Industrie Flight 129Jul 1 Air Mauritanie Flight 625Jul 2 USAir Flight 1016Jul 19 Alas Chiricanas Flight 00901Aug 10 Korean Air Flight 2033Aug 21 Royal Air Maroc Flight 630Sep 8 USAir Flight 427Sep 18 1994 Oriental Airlines crashSep 26 Vanavara air disasterOct 12 Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 746Oct 31 American Eagle Flight 4184Nov 3 SAS Flight 347Nov 22 TWA Flight 427Dec 11 Philippine Airlines Flight 434Dec 13 Flagship Airlines Flight 3379Dec 19 Nigeria Airways Flight 9805Dec 21 Air Algérie Flight 702PDec 24 Air France Flight 8969Dec 29 Turkish Airlines Flight 278

1993 ◄ ► 1995

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in the United Kingdom in the 1990s
1990	British Army Gazelle shootdown (February 1990) Scotland RAF Shackleton crash (April 1990) British Airways Flight 5390 (June 1990)
1991	1991 British Army Lynx shootdown (February 1991)
1993	Llyn Padarn helicopter crash (August 1993)
1994	1994 British Army Lynx shootdown (March 1994) Mull of Kintyre Chinook crash (June 1994) RAF Puma shootdown (July 1994) Air Algérie Flight 702P (December 1994)
1995	Bristow Helicopters Flight 56C (January 1995) Royal Air Force Nimrod R1 ditching (16 May 1995) Knight Air Flight 816 (24 May 1995)
1997	Virgin Atlantic Flight 024 (November 1997)
1999	Edinburgh Air Charter Flight 3W (September 1999) Korean Air Cargo Flight 8509 (December 1999)
1980–1989 ◄ 1990–1999 ► 2000–

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in Ireland
1940s	TWA Flight 6963 (December 1946) Pan Am Flight 1-10 (April 1948)
1950s	Nutts Corner BEA Vickers Viking accident (January 1953)# KLM Flight 633 (September 1954) KLM Flight 607-E (August 1958)* Pan Am Clipper Panama (June 1959)
1960s	Alitalia Flight 618 (February 1960) President Airlines Douglas DC-6 (September 1961) Aer Lingus Flight 712 (March 1968)
1970s	British Army Gazelle downing (February 1978)# American Airlines Flight 293 (June 1979)
1980s	Air India Flight 182 (June 1985)* template 1988 British Army Lynx shootdown (June 1988)#
1990s	British Army Gazelle shootdown (February 1990)# 1991 British Army Lynx shootdown (February 1991)# 1994 British Army Lynx shootdown (March 1994)# Irish Marine Emergency Service Rescue 111 (July 1999)
2010s	Manx2 Flight 7100 (February 2011) Irish Coast Guard Rescue 116 (March 2017)
Accidents with the pound sign (#) occurred in Northern Ireland, which is a part of the United Kingdom, while others occurred in the Republic of Ireland. Accidents with asteriks (*) occurred in the ocean near Ireland

Categories:

Background

The attack

Aftermath

See also

Notes

References