Colin Maclachlan

Colin was involved in some of the most high profile and daring SAS missions in recent time. Only a handful of men have been involved in hostage negotiations, hostage rescue and been a hostage themselves and Colin is one of them.

On one mission, Colin waded through swamps in Sierra Leone to hunt down the ‘West Side Boys‘, a guerrilla gang holding 11 British soldiers hostage. It was a mission so dangerous they nicknamed it ‘Operation Certain Death’ – it’s real name was Operation Barras. The SAS teams secured the hostages’ building and neutralised any West Side Boys.

Maclachlan was also the first sniper on the scene when a hijacked flight with 180 passengers landed at Stansted. Sparking a four-day stand-off, it was the longest standing hostage siege on UK soil to date. Four years later, Colin found himself on the other side of a rescue mission after he was taken hostage in Basra. Blindfolded, battered and stripped naked, he had a gun pressed to his head and the trigger pulled, as his captors held mock executions. Colin only survived long enough for British troops to rescue him because the terrorists wanted to film his suffering in a propaganda video before they executed him.

Colin left the SAS shortly after completing an exchange programme with Delta Force and Seal Team 6, and has since provided security consultancy for the Saudi Royal Family, Celebrities and US Media Networks.

Colin has a First Class MA (Hons.) in History from Edinburgh University and an M.Litt in Terrorism from St. Andrews University.