Captain Ian McKechnie

As a pilot, McKechnie marked a distinguished career in naval aviation with two significant actions. The first was his 1967 napalm bombing of the stricken oil tanker Torrey Canyon, which helped contain the disastrous torrent of oil.

Secondly, and unpublicised for political reasons, was his ship-to-ship transfer by helicopter of 72 survivors from a Turkish destroyer, sunk by friendly fire during the Cyprus war in 1974. He was later

awarded the Turkish Distinguished Service Medal, the only foreign recipient in the his-

tory of Ataturk's republic, and allowed to wear it by the Queen.

He oversaw a difficult period of industrial change as Queen's Harbourmaster for the Clyde and Captain of the Port of Faslane, and was involved in the painful aftermath following

the loss of the trawler Antares, dragged to the bottom in 1990 by the nuclear-powered sub-marine Trenchant killing all

four hands.

McKechnie came close to death aged 24, when his Yeovilton-based Royal Navy Sea Vixen was in collision with a similar jet during a combat training exercise over Dartmoor. He and his observer ejected, but McKechnie spent months in hospital with a back injury. The other

Sea Vixen landed safely and

no blame was attached for the accident. For his parachute escape he was inducted into the Caterpillar Club.

The bulk oil carrier, Torrey Canyon, was carrying 120,000 gallons of oil when she ran aground off Land's End in March 1967. Unsuccessful attempts were made to salvage her until 30,000 gallons had escaped and the government decided to set fire to the remainder. Military aircraft bombed the vessel and the press reported 25% misses on a stationary target. Success was achieved when McKechnie and his colleagues napalmed the wreck with Sea Vixens and Buccaneers.

He performed his most outstanding and gallant airmanship during the 1974 Turkish military response to the Greek-inspired coup in Cyprus. On July 21, Turkish aircraft mistakenly attacked and sank the Turkish destroyer Kocatepe (ex-USS Harwood) off Akrotiri. Rescuers found 72 exhausted survivors who were taken to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Olna. But the political decision was made to remove the Turks from British care within 24 hours.

As Wasp helicopter pilot

on the Leander Class frigate, HMS Andromeda, Lieutenant

McKechnie volunteered to undertake a ship-to-ship transfer in darkness and stormy

conditions. In his two-seater ''paraffin pigeon'', he ferried up to five survivors at a time to the Turkish warship Berk. As she was a new vessel with no lighting on her flight deck, he instructed Turkish sailors to stand in a square, holding aloft RN-issue torches to create

an illuminated horizon for landing. He later recalled:

''Different-sized, tiring Turks do not make for a very good horizon bar after two hours.''

Nonetheless, he completed 55 deck landings, including four stretcher cases, in four-and-a-half hours of near-constant flying. ''It transpired our Wasp

was the first helicopter to land on the Berk's heaving flight deck,'' he later said. He had earlier evacuated civilians and tourists caught up in the fierce fighting around Kyrenia and by 2pm on July 23, more than 2000 people had been rescued by

HM Ships Andromeda, Hermes, Devonshire, and RFA Olna. With the removal of flotation gear, four adults and two children in arms could be carried

in his tiny Wasp.

McKechnie recalled ''a string of signals from Whitehall held us back'' from landing in the dusty ground inside Kyrenia, which was under small arms, mortar, and tank fire. ''Thanks to UN forces, Turkish tanks were persuaded to hold off until the evacuation was complete,'' he added. Two passengers included a mother and her four-day-old baby, abandoned in hospital as the fighting intensified.

The citation for his 1974 Boyd Trophy (which he won twice), presented by the Royal Navy for the Turkish incident, reads: ''The successful completion of this mission was due entirely to the exceptional flying skill of Lt McKechnie, backed up by the professionalism and initiative of all members of his Flight . . .'' The Turkish ships and personnel were described as ''foreign'' and the incident was not publicised. He was also awarded the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air.

In his last job for Nato in Virginia Beach, US, he told a Turkish admiral his one regret was that a miniature version of his foreign decoration for evening dress was unobtainable. The Turks duly made one for him. On holiday once in Izmir, he recognised a ship in harbour as the Berk and was invited aboard while the Turkish press was summoned.

Ian McKechnie was born

in Surrey and educated at Portsmouth Grammar School. He joined the Merchant Navy after college as an apprentice navigator, sailing all over the world with P&O. His leadership first emerged in 1960 when he saved the life of a fellow cadet by resuscitating him after he nearly drowned in the Philippines.

He entered the Royal Navy

in 1963 at Britannia Royal

Naval College, Dartmouth, later trained as a fighter pilot and

held a number of fixed wing

and rotary flying and management posts over the next 30 years. From 1983-85 he was commanding officer of HMS Gannet, the naval air station

at Prestwick, after which he

was made OBE for his work

with the local community. He was later appointed the Royal Navy's director of aviation, and held a citation from the US

secretary of the Navy for his efforts while on exchange.

After redundancy in 1993 under the MoD's since discredited Options for Change, he started his own e-commerce business, worked for Strathclyde Graduate Business School,

and ran a maritime consultancy in Venezuela.

He is survived by his first wife, Judy, with whom he had three sons, Charles, Andrew, and Angus, and five grandchildren, and his second wife, Shonah.