Liz McConaghy

Liz McConaghy was the longest serving female crewman on the Royal Air Force Chinook Fleet spanning a 17 year career flying on the aircraft.

Originally from a small town in Co. Down Northern Ireland she attended RAF Cranwell on her 19^th birthday to begin her exciting career thereafter on Chinook Helicopters.

She was the youngest aircrew to deploy to Iraq aged just 21 and also the only female crewman on the Chinook wing for 4 years, so her story is completely unique.

Her career saw her amass 2 deployments to Iraq and 10 deployments to Helmand Afghanistan in support of Operation Herrick which gave her an insightful and very personal perspective on war.

Upon leaving the RAF in 2019 Liz slowly became unravelled after a series of traumatic events that compounded her PTSD. This led to her trying to end her life in Aug 2020.

She survived and went into the Veterans Mental Health care system to help her deal with her demons and finally lay the images she had seen on the battlefield to rest. During this time she began writing poetry and subsequently an autobiography to help her get her thoughts out of her head.

Chinook Crew Chick was released in Sept 2022 and went to Amazon Bestseller within 3 weeks. It is an honest and humorous account of her ‘best of times and worst of times’ and how her experiences flying on the Chinook have changed and moulded her into the woman she has become.

From dodging bullets to saving soldiers and witnessing the brutality and loss of war she writes how she found herself bringing the battlefield home, despite her fighting days being over.

Liz’s story offers hope to those who have also found themselves in the darkest of places, who are looking for the tools within themselves to begin to rebuild a pathway to a new life. She is now an ambassador for mental health and specifically PTSD with Veterans. Liz stands as an example that PTSD does not have to be your identity, it can simply be a chapter of your life that can be learned from and most importantly moved on from.

“Liz is a brilliant natural storyteller. With many laugh out loud moments but she equally pulls no punches about the dark side of war and it’s effects.”

“Liz eloquently describes her journey through her time serving with one of the finest services in the world”

“Liz is amazingly courageous, one of the lads and a heroine. Her book is an absolute page turner and will engross you at every point.”

“Liz’s talk really struck a chord with me as a Veteran who questions what was it all for. Thank you for helping me find the answers.”

“Just listened to Liz McConaghy’s talk and thoroughly enjoyed it.  What a fantastic guest. A lot of what she said resonated with me. The best talk I have seen to date.”

“Heard liz’s talk on a recent podcast. Her story is amazing, so much so I snipped part of her interview to send to friends and family to help them understand PTSD better.”

“Just watched Liz on the BBC this morning. I am just in awe of her story and how well she tells it. Moved me to tears. She is a true hero and tremendously admired.”

Links to Liz's book –

Chinook Crew 'Chick': Highs and Lows of Forces Life from the Longest Serving Female RAF Chinook Force Crewmember: Amazon.co.uk: McConaghy, Liz: 9781399072922: Books

Chinook Crew 'Chick' by Liz McConaghy | Waterstones