Neville Atkinson

Neville Atkinson was born in Beverley in the East riding of Yorkshire. He was a successful night fighter pilot for the Fleet Air Arm in the Royal Navy. Neville served on the HMS Centaur and piloted Sea Vixen FAW2 fighters. In 1972 Neville left his career in the Navy to take up the position as personal pilot to The President of Libya, Muammar al-Gaddafi.

For the next 10 years his role was to fly Colonel Gaddafi, Government Ministers and many world dignitaries around the Middle East and Africa.

Probably one of the most notable moments in Atkinson’s career was in December 1975, when he was given the task of flying Carlos the Jackal^[1] and a number of other terrorists. He extracted Carlos and his fellow terrorists from Algeria, saving the fate of the sixty hostages captured from the OPEC headquarters in Vienna. It is reputed that Neville asked Carlos to sign a copy of Forsyth’s ‘Day of the Jackal’ during the flight.

In 2006 Neville Atkinson published his first book “Death on Small Wings: Memoirs of a Presidential Pilot” which detailed his experiences during the 1970s as Gaddafi's personal pilot.

He died on January 13, 2007, aged 73.

See also

Muammar al-Gaddafi
Carlos the Jackal

References

1. ^ 1

OPEC Raid

Bibliography

Atkinson, Neville. Death on Small Wings: Memoirs of a Presidential Pilot. Libario Publishing Ltd. 2006. ISBN 1-904440-78-9

External links

• Death on Small Wings, Publishers Website
• Fleet Air Arm Offices' Association

Persondata
Name	Atkinson, Neville
Alternative names
Short description	Aviator
Date of birth	c. 1934
Place of birth	Beverley, East Riding, Yorkshire, England
Date of death	13 January 2007
Place of death