The giant Victor bomber - named Teasin' Tina - was only supposed to taxi down the runway and stop for a photoshoot before returning to the hangar.That, ladies and gentlemen, is the Right Stuff.
But the bungling 'co-pilot' - an engineer with no flying experience - hit the throttle by mistake and the 75-tonne bomber lurched 150 feet into the air. Stunned pilot Bob Prothero, 70, grabbed the controls as the Victor bomber veered off the runway and climbed into the air on a collision course with the crowd and a nearby housing estate.
Quick-thinking Mr Prothero, who last flew a Victor in the 1980s and whose flying licence has long expired, took the controls and wrestled the gigantic plane to safety.
It landed in a field at the end of a runway without a single casualty or scratch to the aircraft.
The 'Daily Fail', by contrast, can't even wrestle a Google page to the ground in order to check their aviation facts...
That is good stuff and tellingly, from an 80s vintage pilot. These days most would be terrified to be criminally charged with touching the controls of a plane without the required permit in hand.
ReplyDeleteThe story in the 'Express' this morning made a point of mentioning that 'officials had confirmed that no action would be taken against Mr Prothero' over his expired flight certificate.
ReplyDeleteWhich was jolly nice of them, I thought....
Brilliant, lets hope the story remains a glorious accident with the unique consequence of hearts racing and joy for all concerned.
ReplyDeleteI suspect there may be a whiff of naughtiness going on here and those that had control of the situation took a calculated risk.
Was Bob arrested? Was his DNA extracted and fed to the Great Database God?
ReplyDelete