On the evening of 7 July 1979, Mackintosh was flying with two others (his friend and an experienced British Airways captain Graham Barber, who was the pilot; and Mackintosh's girlfriend, Susan Insole) over the Gulf of Alaska in a light aircraft.[2] The plane sent out a distress signal, which was picked up by the United States Coast Guard. The plane's last-known position was searched, but no wreckage of the plane was ever found, and its passengers have not been heard from since.
Mackintosh disappeared after he had written just four of the scripts for the third series, so other writers were called in to bring the episode count up to seven
The Sandbaggers was created by Ian Mackintosh, a Scottish former naval officer turned television writer, who had previously achieved success with the acclaimed BBC television series Warship. He wrote all the episodes of the first two series of The Sandbaggers, but in July 1979, during the shooting of the third series, he and his girlfriend—a British Airways stewardess—were declared lost at sea after their single-engined aircraft went missing over the Pacific Ocean near Alaska, following a radioed call for help. Some of the details surrounding their disappearance have caused speculation about what actually occurred, including their stop at an abandoned United States Air Force base and the fact that the plane happened to crash in the one small area that was not covered by either U.S. or Soviet radar.
Whether or not Mackintosh had any experience in the world of espionage, the organisational structure of SIS depicted in The Sandbaggers is probably closer to that of the CIA than that of the SIS. There is no formal section of the SIS known as the Special Operations Section, as far as is publicly known, and there is no intelligence unit known as the Sandbaggers. However, the departures from accuracy in the show may have been deliberate, in order to avoid problems with the SIS under the Official Secrets Act. Ray Lonnen mentioned in an interview that one episode in the second series was vetoed because it dealt with sensitive information, which explains why the second series has only six episodes.
https://qagg.news/?q=%23%233827
u/#q3827
The Sandbaggers "It Couldn't Happen Here" / Sandbaggers 205 / 1979
"Thank God it couldn't happen here."
https://youtu.be/tV7QMAE8FgY?t=94 (timestamp / watch 1:35 -> 4:24
"I'll send a sandbagger."
https://youtu.be/tV7QMAE8FgY?t=673 (timestamp / watch 11:13 -> 13:02
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Mackintosh
On the evening of 7 July 1979, Mackintosh was flying with two others (his friend and an experienced British Airways captain Graham Barber, who was the pilot; and Mackintosh's girlfriend, Susan Insole) over the Gulf of Alaska in a light aircraft.[2] The plane sent out a distress signal, which was picked up by the United States Coast Guard. The plane's last-known position was searched, but no wreckage of the plane was ever found, and its passengers have not been heard from since.
Mackintosh disappeared after he had written just four of the scripts for the third series, so other writers were called in to bring the episode count up to seven
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandbaggers
The Sandbaggers was created by Ian Mackintosh, a Scottish former naval officer turned television writer, who had previously achieved success with the acclaimed BBC television series Warship. He wrote all the episodes of the first two series of The Sandbaggers, but in July 1979, during the shooting of the third series, he and his girlfriend—a British Airways stewardess—were declared lost at sea after their single-engined aircraft went missing over the Pacific Ocean near Alaska, following a radioed call for help. Some of the details surrounding their disappearance have caused speculation about what actually occurred, including their stop at an abandoned United States Air Force base and the fact that the plane happened to crash in the one small area that was not covered by either U.S. or Soviet radar.
Whether or not Mackintosh had any experience in the world of espionage, the organisational structure of SIS depicted in The Sandbaggers is probably closer to that of the CIA than that of the SIS. There is no formal section of the SIS known as the Special Operations Section, as far as is publicly known, and there is no intelligence unit known as the Sandbaggers. However, the departures from accuracy in the show may have been deliberate, in order to avoid problems with the SIS under the Official Secrets Act. Ray Lonnen mentioned in an interview that one episode in the second series was vetoed because it dealt with sensitive information, which explains why the second series has only six episodes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_Jr._plane_crash
July seems to be an unlucky month for single engine aircraft...
https://qagg.news/?q=%23%23259
u/#q259
https://qagg.news/?q=%23%23463
u/#q463
https://qagg.news/?q=%23%23525
u/#q525
Then again... what better place to hide a rock than among stones.