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Mike Oldfield Forums » Albums » Five Miles Out » Piper Navajo vs Beech 18

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Topic: Piper Navajo vs Beech 18, Which was the plane of the FMO incident?

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Wayfarer

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Posted: Oct. 31 2004, 18:06

Ok, almost everyone here knows the story behind the song Five Miles Out: he was in a plane crossing the Pyrenees when he was caught by a terrible storm and the plane was near to the crashing.

Now, the two questions:

1.- Some bios says it was a Piper Navajo, while the plane depicted in the cover is a Beech 18. Which one is the correct plane?

2.- Does anyone knows what was the register number of the plane? In the cover it looks something like G-AFVJ or G-ABVJ, but in the song the lyrics say G-MOVJ (Golf Mike Oscar Victor Juliet)

3.- Was Mike the pilot or the co-pilot? Again, different bios says different things.

Well, they're finally three questions. Any answer?

-- Wayfarer

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Ugo

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Posted: Nov. 01 2004, 08:26

I generally tend to trust the biographies and not the album cover, i.e. IMHO the cover has nothing to do with the actual incident.

So:

1- A Piper Navajo.

2 - I don't know.

Again, the cover has nothing to do with the incident and the song - AFAIK Mike said "Golf Mike Oscar Victor Juliet" not because it was the actual code of his plane, but because it sounded good.

3 - Mike was the pilot, and there were some friends of his on board.

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Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian

Korgscrew

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Posted: Nov. 03 2004, 05:14

The most relevant about the plane registration is probably this topic here. There are a couple others, though - you'll find them easily enough if you look down the topic lists for this (five miles out) area of the forum.

It was a hired Piper Navajo they were in (flying over the Pyrenees during one of his 1980s tours - it was Mike and the band in it), and it was possibly someone else piloting it (I wouldn't say that piloting a plane while in the middle of a tour would be a particularly good idea, considering how tiring touring can be...but then, maybe that's why they got into difficulties), but it depends what day you ask Mike on

2 replies since Oct. 31 2004, 18:06

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Mike Oldfield Forums » Albums » Five Miles Out » Piper Navajo vs Beech 18