Arthur Piercy treated to a Tigermoth flight at the SAAF Museum.

Saturday 3rd November was a very special day for the Veteran South African Airforce pilot Arthur Piercy, Arthur was invited by the SAAF Museum to enjoy a flight in a vintage de Haviland Tigermoth belonging to Daniel Perry. Special arrangements had to be made to hoist Arthur into the aircraft as he is wheelchair bound following an incident that took place in September 1987.

Arthur was doing a tour with 3 squadron at Airforce base Rundu in the Northern Namibia when the call came for them to “scramble”, they quickly got airborne. Arthur was flying wingman to the previous Chief of the Airforce Lt Gen Carlo Gagiano on this fateful sortie. The two of them quickly reached 30000ft where the “Bogey” a Cuban Mig 23 was spotted, Arthur’s first reaction was to admire the aircraft but was quickly brought to his senses when he found himself face to face with the monster. 
The Mig pilot Major Alberto Ley Rivas managed to squeeze of a missile before Arthur could engage which unbeknown to him at the time caused extensive damage to the rear of the aircraft. After reporting that he may have been hit Arthur was given the order to “go home” he immediately put the F1CZ into a dive and dropped to the deck as there were many anti-aircraft batteries in the area. While flying low and fast the aircraft systematically started reporting failures. First the EP pump failed then the right-hand side fuel pump failed, at this time Gen Gagiano pulled up alongside him and reported that fuel was pouring out the aircraft and the drag chute was missing. Moments later the backup hydraulic system failed followed by a warning that oil system was about to fail. On touchdown Arthur tried to brake to no avail, somewhere along the line the main hydraulic system had also failed leaving only the arrester bed to stop him, which didn’t help at all at that speed. The Mirage crashed through the security fence, the nose and left-hand main gear collapsed, the ejection seat deployed and propelling Arthur high into the sky. 
The Mirage F1’s Hubert Baker seat is not designed to be used on the ground so the parachute did not have enough height to deploy and crashed to the ground with Arthur still attached leaving Arthur with a C6 and C7 fracture and permanent confinement to a wheel chair.
The SAAF mobile deployment wing and members of the Warterkloof fire and rescue department were at hand with a “cherry picker” to hoist Arthur into the beautifully restored Tigermoth. As Arthur was lifted he extended his arms and jokingly commented “look I’m flying”. Unfortunately the flight was very short lived as the radio on the tiger developed a snag and they were forced to land after only one wide circuit. On the day The lovely Mrs South Africa Lynné de Jager and her Husband visited the Museum and were taken for a flight in one of the two flying Alouette III, Lynné will be representing South Africa at the Mrs World Competition later this year. All the best Lynné “Bring it home”
Arthur his Fiancé Gerda Bondfield and father Cyril serve as an inspiration to people worldwide on how to overcome challenges and live positively. Arthur is currently involved in many different organizations and is the Public Relations officer at Association for the Physically Disabled in Greater Johannesburg area.
A special word of thanks goes to Lt Col Francois “Hosepipe” Hanekom and Lt Col Mike O’Connor OC SAAF Museum for all the planning and arrangements.