Coat of Arms of the Escuadrón Fénix

Civilian Learjet like those employed by the unit

The Phoenix Squadron (Spanish: Escuadrón Fénix) was a special unit of the Argentine Air Force formed during the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas War. ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 822 KB) C-GBFP Adlair Aviation Learjet 25B (LJ25) Picture taken 104th June 1999 at 18:59 MDT (11th June 1999 00:59Z) at Cambridge Bay Airport, Nunavut, Canada File links The following pages link to this file: Lear Jet... ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 822 KB) C-GBFP Adlair Aviation Learjet 25B (LJ25) Picture taken 104th June 1999 at 18:59 MDT (11th June 1999 00:59Z) at Cambridge Bay Airport, Nunavut, Canada File links The following pages link to this file: Lear Jet... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Argentine Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Argentina, FAA) is the national air force of Argentina. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas), was a war between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands (also known in Spanish as the Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, occurring between April and June of 1982. ...

The Air Force recognition force at that time was formed around the Grupo 1 Aerofotográfico (English: 1st Air Photographic Group) part of the 2nd Air Brigade equipped with two Learjets 35 and based at Parana, province of Entre Rios. Look up English in Wiktionary, the free dictionary As an adjective, English refers to anything from or pertaining to England. ... Lear Jet was a company which produced business jets for civilian and military use. ... Paraná is the capital city of the Argentine province of Entre Ríos, located at coordinates 31°45′S 60°30′W on the shore of the Paraná River, opposite the city of Santa Fe, capital of the neighbouring Santa Fe Province. ...

On April 1982, the unit was soon deployed to Comodoro Rivadavia and was reinforced with more civilian planes and their civilian pilots who volunteer to flight them. Comodoro Rivadavia is a city in the Chubut Province of southern Argentina, on the Gulf of San Jorge (an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean). ...

During the war, the Learjets done 52 flights for search/reconnaissance, as communications retransmitters and also guiding combat jets with their much more complex navigation systems.

But notably the most difficult missions of the unit where 126 sorties done as decoy targets, flying day and night simulating strike aircraft preparing to attack the fleet.

Without any doubt, most successes of the A-4 Skyhawks and Daggers strike units were achieved thanks the British Sea Harriers were not over those targets. A-4M Skyhawk The A-4 Skyhawk is an attack aircraft originally designed to operate from United States Navy aircraft carriers. ... The IAI Nesher is an Israeli-built military aircraft based on the French Mirage 5 Dassault had developed the Mirage 5 at the request of the Israelis. ... See also Hawker Siddeley Harrier The BAE SYSTEMS Harrier FA2 is the latest development of the Sea Harrier fighter/attack aircraft which entered service with the Royal Navy in April 1980. ...

On one of these flights, on June 7, an Air Force Learjet was shot down by a surface-to-air missile SAM Sea Dart killing the squadron commander, Vice Commodore Rodolfo De La Colina, who became the highest ranking Argentine officer to die in the War. Sea Dart Type surface-to-air, surface-to-surface Nationality UK Era Cold War Launch platform ship Target aircraft or ship History Builder British Aerospace Date of design Production period Service duration 1973 Operators UK (Royal Navy), Argentina Variants ? Number built ? Specifications Type Diameter 0. ...

The crew of the plane was : Vice Commodore De La Colina (pilot), Major Falconier (co-pilot), Captain Lotufo (photographer), Staff Sub-Officer Luna (mechanic) and Assistant Sub-Officer Marizza (mechanic).

External links

• Escuadron Fenix (Spanish)