Buccaneer 411 – 24 Squadron SAAF

BUCCANEER 411 (C/N B3-11-63/SA1)

Buccaneer 411 was the first SAAF Buccaneer S Mk 50 to come off the production line at the Hawker Siddeley factory. The aircraft did not join 24 Squadron but was assigned the factory serial number of G-2-1 and was used as a test bed for the various systems and flight data. The aircraft only joined 24 Squadron as part of the 2nd batch of 8 Buccaneers that was shipped to the RSA in 2 batches of 4 each.

Buccaneer 411 famous for her two Pitot Tubes, doing a RATO.

Trevor Schroeder

Buccaneer 411 was delivered on 17 October 1966 as part of the last batch shipped to the RSA onboard the vessel SA Langkloof and taken on strength at 24 Squadron.

Buccaneer 411 was sadly lost on 4 January 1973 – The aircraft entered into a spin

during a refuelling attempt due to tail plane/tanker slipstream interference. The crew Lt T.J. Schroeder (Pilot) and Lt R.I. Roy (Navigator) safely ejected from 411 which went down and crashed on a farm in the Sheepmoor area.

An interesting note by some of the ground crew members at 24 Squadron is that since each of the aircraft in those days were hand built, they all had different characteristics and not even the fuel capacity of each individual Buccaneer was the same. It was thus important that the aircrew was allocated to a specific Buccaneer to get to know the aircraft’s characteristics.

Photographs of Buccaneer S MK50 are very scarce.

Sandy Roy