Pablo Mason - RAF Career

RAF Career

Mason joined the Royal Air Force after joining the Air Training Corps as a teenager. He initially trained and qualified on helicopters, before transitioning to Fighter aircraft in XV Squadron with the Panavia Tornado. His service included Northern Ireland and Hong Kong.

Mason was among the 24 RAF Tornado crews detached to Saudi Arabia during the buildup to Operation Desert Storm, with the specific brief to knock out the Iraqi Air Force bases by bombing the runways. On Mason's first mission, an ultra-low level daylight mission on Ar Rumaylah airfield leading a flight of four Tornados, his number two crew of John Peters and navigator John Nichol were shot down and became POW's. Mason flew and led 24 bombing missions in total in Desert Storm, from ultra-low-level daylight, medium-level night bombing and on 2 February 1991 the first ever Buccaneer–Tornado attack using laser-guided bombs. During the Gulf War he was often seen on television representing the RAF.

On his return from the Gulf, on 10 May 1991 Mason's life was saved when his Navigator ejected the crew from his Tornado GR1, which crashed near Lubberstedt, Germany, on a training mission. The RAF investigation of the incident attributed the cause of the crash to pilot mishandling of the aircraft.

After the Gulf War he remained in the public eye, particularly during the 1998/9 bombing of Iraq, which he publicly criticised; he was often described as a "Gulf War ace".