Louis Warburton was forced to wear 20-kilogram body armour when flying Chinook helicopters during the UN-backed Operation Newcombe, which he says pressed against his thighs, damaging his sciatic and femoral nerves, causing intense pain and numbness.
He was medically discharged from the RAF and says that the pain has affected his daily activities, including his sex life with his partner.
Of course, not wearing body armour, and not having a heavy armoured pan underneath him might, also have wreaked an awful toll on his crown jewels too....
Re: Armour caused medical problem
Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2022 7:30 pm
by FD2
Much as I sympathise with Warburton's problem I can't help wondering if he's the only pilot claiming that wearing the armour caused this particular result..
There was/is a sizeable number of ex-military rotary wing pilots with back problems and/or deafness due to sitting in an awkward position* for long periods with inadequate ear protection back in the 1960s and 70s but how do we prove the cause many years later? His 'results' or lack of 'results' are much sooner after the alleged cause so I look forward to reading about the result of this case. If his armour was inadequately or wrongly adjusted, compared to the other squadron pilots, then who is to blame for that?
* I once did a 5 hour flight in a Wessex 3 without leaving the cockpit. After struggling out I couldn't walk or stand up straight for over 10 minutes. Thank God the usual sortie time was less than 2 hours, and lovely to fly as the Wessex was, the move to the Sea King was so much more comfortable! We could even get up and walk around, usually to have a pee. Only in transit of course.
