High-flying husband and wife are BOTH in race to be the next chief of the Royal Air Force
A HIGH-FLYING husband and wife are in the race to be the next chief of the Royal Air Force, 'we can reveal.
Air Marshal Al Marshall and Air Vice-Marshal Suraya Marshall are the most senior serving couple in UK Armed Forces'
history
.
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Air Marshal Al Marshall is one half of the RAF's most senior serving couple in history
Credit: AS1 Tomas Barnard RAF
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Air Vice-Marshal Suraya Marshall is also in contention to become the head of the RAF
Credit: RAF
Both are tipped as potential successors to Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton, who has been promoted to Chief of Defence Staff to lead all three Armed Forces this autumn.
Al, who joined up in 1991, is Air and Space Commander responsible for all air operations in the UK and overseas.
He flew Harrier jump jets in Iraq, Afghanistan and Bosnia.
Former
Tornado
navigator Suraya, who joined up in 1993, is Assistant Chief of the Air Staff.
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She was the first female weapons instructor and first woman to command one of the RAF's two operational groups.
She led No 2 Group, which included all RAF cargo squadrons, in 2021 — the same time Al led No 1 Group, with all the combat aircraft.
A source said: 'Talk about a
power
couple.
'Between them they've commanded every plane in the Air Force.
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'Al is one rank senior so it would be more of a jump for Suraya but the leap's been made before.'
RAF insiders said the couple, who have two children, are up against Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff Air Marshal Harv Smyth, who is favourite to replace Sir Rich.
First non-pilot to lead RAF is picked to command all three armed forces
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The Irish Sun
17 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
High-flying husband and wife are BOTH in race to be the next chief of the Royal Air Force
A HIGH-FLYING husband and wife are in the race to be the next chief of the Royal Air Force, 'we can reveal. Air Marshal Al Marshall and Air Vice-Marshal Suraya Marshall are the most senior serving couple in UK Armed Forces' history . Advertisement 2 Air Marshal Al Marshall is one half of the RAF's most senior serving couple in history Credit: AS1 Tomas Barnard RAF 2 Air Vice-Marshal Suraya Marshall is also in contention to become the head of the RAF Credit: RAF Both are tipped as potential successors to Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton, who has been promoted to Chief of Defence Staff to lead all three Armed Forces this autumn. Al, who joined up in 1991, is Air and Space Commander responsible for all air operations in the UK and overseas. He flew Harrier jump jets in Iraq, Afghanistan and Bosnia. Former Tornado navigator Suraya, who joined up in 1993, is Assistant Chief of the Air Staff. Advertisement READ MORE ON THE RAF She was the first female weapons instructor and first woman to command one of the RAF's two operational groups. She led No 2 Group, which included all RAF cargo squadrons, in 2021 — the same time Al led No 1 Group, with all the combat aircraft. A source said: 'Talk about a power couple. 'Between them they've commanded every plane in the Air Force. Advertisement Most read in The Sun 'Al is one rank senior so it would be more of a jump for Suraya but the leap's been made before.' RAF insiders said the couple, who have two children, are up against Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff Air Marshal Harv Smyth, who is favourite to replace Sir Rich. First non-pilot to lead RAF is picked to command all three armed forces
The Irish Sun
4 days ago
- The Irish Sun
UK airport shuts for good after 95 years to make way for thousands of homes – despite ‘contamination' fears
A UK airport has closed for good after 95 years to make may for thousands of homes – despite fears the area is "contaminated". The privately-run airport shut on June 6 after a developer served notice on the operator of the site. 1 Nottingham City Airport also provides a landing zone for the air ambulance The Vistry Group, which owns Tollerton Airfield In Nottingham, plans to build 1,600 homes and a school at the site. Home to Nottingham City Airport and a number of other businesses, the site also provides a landing zone for the air ambulance. Vistry served notice on operator Truman Aviation to vacate the site, but said it would continue to provide a landing zone for the air ambulance during the initial phase of development. The site's closure follows a year-long battle from campaigners against Vistry. Campaigners believe that more than 1,200 aircraft containing radioactive materials were burnt and buried at the ex-RAF base leading to contamination. Concerns were raised after campaigners found evidence that the ex- in Site owner Brian Wells, who was sent notice to vacate the area in March, previously said developers were "determined to have everywhere shut down for when they came to planning". "We agreed we'd have two to five years here before they would take over," he told NottinghamshireLive. "They even suggested they could keep one runway open for us. Most read in The Sun "But the main board of developers say they've had enough of all these people protesting and decided to shut it down sooner rather than later." David Lammy confirms first batch of Brits have left Tel Aviv by RAF plane amid boiling tensions in the Middle East He added that "it's very sad" how things have developed much quicker than hoped for, and said the closure will mean "numerous redundancies". The During World War 2 it was acquired by the Air Ministry and became RAF Tollerton. What would happen if the site is contaminated? Campaigners for the airport have referred to other cases where ex-RAF airfields like Tollerton were used as "burn, bash, and bury" sites and then deemed potentially hazardous. If the grounds were disturbed, an extensive clean-up process would have to be done. An example of this is Dalgety Bay, Fife, Scotland, a stretch of coastline used for the same purposes as Tollerton AIrfield. Traces of radium-226 found in the ground required a two-year clean-up project at the site. Other examples include RAF Newton, RAF Carlisle and RAF Kinloss. A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: 'Our Environment Agency officers advised Rushcliffe Borough Council (the planning authority) in May 2024 that a condition of planning permission is that developers have a plan in place to identify and deal with the risks associated with potential contaminants. "In addition, we have advised that the site will need to be assessed for potential contaminants at routine stages as the development progresses.' Rushcliffe Borough Council has confirmed applications for the site include initial land contamination assessments. A spokesperson for Rushcliffe Borough Council said: "We are aware of the previous uses of the wider site, including the airfield and the potential for land contamination associated with these uses. "Both current applications for the site include initial land contamination assessments".
Irish Examiner
21-06-2025
- Irish Examiner
'We prepared for survivors': A Navy officer's memory of Air India Flight 182, 40 years on
Hundreds of people including relatives of those who died in the Air India disaster will attend the 40th anniversary commemoration for the 329 passengers and crew who were killed when a bomb exploded on the transatlantic flight off the coast of West Cork. The main commemoration will be held on Monday, June 23, in the village of Ahakista, the nearest point on land to where Air India flight 182 exploded, scattering bodies and debris into the Atlantic about 190km off the Irish coast. This commemoration will get under way at 8am and is expected to be attended by a number of senior Canadian and Indian diplomats, along with Irish politicians and members of the emergency services, some of whom who are now retired but were involved in the original search and recovery operation. The navy will be represented by its current commanding officer Commodore Michael Malone. The plane's wreckage being brought ashore. A memorial built in the West Cork coastal village was unveiled exactly one year after the 1985 disaster. Its centrepiece is a sundial on a rounded stone base. Created by Cork sculptor Ken Thompson, it is designed to capture the sun's rays at 8.13am, which is the exact time the Boeing 747-237B disappeared from radar. The flight was heading from Montreal for a stopover in London and then to Delhi. It was blown up in Irish airspace while at an altitude of 9,400m. Of those killed, the majority were of Indian descent. There were 280 Canadian citizens, 27 British and 22 Indian passport holders onboard, plus other nationalities. There were more than 80 children onboard. Initially, it was not known what the cause was, but it was quickly determined a bomb had been placed onboard. It was planted by Sikh separatists and was the world's deadliest act of aviation terrorism until the 9/11 Osama Bin Laden-led attacks on the US in 2001 killed more than 3,000. The jet's bombing remains the largest mass murder in modern Canadian history and the worst loss of life ever suffered by Air India. On June 13 of this year an Air India passenger plane bound for London crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad, resulting in the tragic loss of 241 lives on board and at least 29 fatalities on the ground. The Indian Embassy in Ireland lauded the local community for it response to the 1985 disaster. It said: "The spirit with which the people of Ahakista and the nearby areas rose to the occasion in solidarity with the families of the victims is a saga but a story largely unknown. Apart from emergency assistance in identifying the bodies and locating and collecting the debris, they opened their hearts and homes to complete strangers and generously put them up in their hour of grief. They continue to do so to this day. The Naval Service mounted a major recovery operation, which was aided by the RAF, which sent in Sea King helicopters. In total, 131 bodies were recovered in what was the biggest off-shore search and recovery operation ever mounted by the Irish State. 'We prepared for survivors' Captain James Robinson, Officer Commander Naval Operations, aboard the le Eithne in 2000. It was coordinated by Lieutenant Commander James Robinson, who captained LÉ Aisling, which was one of five ships at the scene. At the time, Robinson's ship had been searching for Spanish trawlers fishing illegally off the Kerry coast when it picked up an alert at 8.52am from Valentia Radio, which said an aircraft had disappeared from radar screens and gave him the likely position of where the plane came down. He said initially they were not told what kind of aircraft was missing, but soon got the awful news it was an Air India Boeing 747 with 329 people on board. 'We prepared for an awful lot of survivors. Spare blankets and sheets were taken out of stores. The sick bay was prepared. Soup was put on the stove. We were going to spare no effort to save as many of those poor people as possible,' he said. LÉ Aisling arrived at the crash scene shortly after 11am. One large merchant ship, the Laurentian Forest, was in the vicinity while overhead a Royal Air Force Nimrod aircraft was circling the area dropping smoke floats to mark concentrations of wreckage. The senior navy officer decided on two objectives. The most important was to recover as many bodies as possible, and as quickly as possible. Robinson was lucky to have an experienced diving team onboard who went out on Gemini RIB (rigid inflatable boats) to gather as many bodies as they could. Though exhausted, the diving team refused to be replaced when Robinson ordered it. They launched 14 times during the day to recover the bodies. The bodies were wrapped in sheets and stowed below decks. The engineers' office and the shipwright's workshop were designated as make-shift morgues. The first body recovered from the crash site arriving at Cork Airport. At the height of the search, Mr Robinson was controlling the movements of 19 ships, a British Nimrod and American Hercules which supplied over-head surveillance technology, and eight military helicopters supplied by the British and US. He also enlisted the help of Spanish trawlers in the area, after finding one crewman on a merchant ship in the area who could speak English and Spanish and he was detailed to relay messages to the trawlers. The merchant vessels also acted as landing pads for helicopters bringing back bodies and other rescue helicopters transported them to the mortuary at the then Cork Regional Hospital, now CUH. When night fell, Robinson released the ships and trawlers from the operation. 'Aisling was left alone in the midst of all that desolation. For the first time since it kicked off, I had time to reflect. I hoped that one day I would look the people who did this in the eye. "I then reflected on what had been achieved by the people under my command and I felt immensely proud but humbled. Most of the people on Aisling were under 25 and many just teenagers. They carried out everything I had asked of them without question,' he said. Robinson has not been to the commemoration for some years but will be attending on Monday where he will lay a wreath alongside several of his former shipmates. 'The families of those who died are getting older so it could be the last big commemoration,' he said. Local school children will form a choir at the ceremony, which is being organised by Cork County Council. A number of locals helped to recover vital pieces of wreckage as well, especially those living by the shore. One was James O'Mahony. At the time he lived close to Trarurim Strand, which is about 10km west of Ahakista. 'People living by the shore would find bits and pieces [of the plane's wreckage] and hand it over the council who would pass it on to the relevant authorities,' Mr O'Mahony said. Mr O'Mahony has since moved to just 1km from the Ahakista memorial and will attend the commemoration this year because it's the 40th anniversary. He has been to a number of them before and met some of the relatives of those who lost their lives, mainly from India. Most of the victims were Hindus and lived in Ontario. The second ceremony of the day will take place at St Michael's Cemetery in the Cork suburb of Blackrock, where two of the victims are buried. Anna Maria Alexander and her daughter, Rena, were both laid to rest in a single grave there. They are the only victims buried in this country as all the other bodies recovered after the plane went down were taken to be buried in their respective home countries by relatives. Finbarr Archer, who has driven lord mayors of Cork for many years, has looked after their graves for the past 40 years. Well-known Cork figure, Finbarr Archer. In June 1985, Finbar was working as an undertaker when he was stationed at the makeshift morgue in Cork following the Air India Flight 182 disaster. In the aftermath, he personally arranged the burial of two unclaimed victims and has continued to tend their graves at St. Michael's Cemetery in Blackrock ever since. Picture Chani Anderson He worked as an undertaker's assistant at the time of the disaster, documenting the names of the dead and helping out at a makeshift mortuary. Mr Archer said that Ann Marie Alexander's husband and a son were also on the flight, but their bodies were never recovered. 'The mother and daughter's bodies were never claimed. We believe that's probably because they didn't have any relatives left,' he said. So, he took it upon himself to tend to their graves ever since and is organising the commemoration at St Michael's Cemetery. 'We will be having local school children playing music on the day and there will be representatives from the fire service and gardaí in attendance. We will also have some of the guards and firemen who were involved in the aftermath of the recovery operations. We'll also have a colour party of UN veterans who'll parade with the Irish Tricolour and Indian and Canadian national flags,' Finbarr said. The ceremony is open to the public and will get under way at about midday. Meanwhile, the navy has revealed as a mark of respect to those lost it has commissioned a commemorative plaque which will be unveiled at Haulbowline naval base during a special ceremony later this summer. Among those invited to the unveiling will be the crewmembers who served proudly on board LE Aisling at the time of the tragedy and as a recognition the navy intends to present them with a commemorative military coin. Read More It is a miracle, says lone survivor of Air India plane crash
