The Tower Bridge Incident - Fighter Pilot Protests Against Politicians

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2 years ago
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Fighter Pilot Steals Jet to Demonstrate Against the Government

In April 1968, the British Air Force was struggling with massive budget cuts and morale was at rock bottom. When politicians didn't even want to celebrate the 50th birthday of the tradition-rich force with a flyover, pilot Alan Pollock took matters into his own hands.

On April 4, the flight lieutenant climbed into his fighter jet and took off with other aircraft toward Norfolk, but immediately left formation and passed a friendly base in low-level flight. He then headed for his real destination to properly celebrate the RAF's birthday: London. Once again, he flew over the city at low altitude and then circled the Houses of Parliament three times with thundering engines to demonstrate against budget cuts and to "let the politicians know that we still have an air force," as he himself describes it. After Pollock flew over the RAF Memorial, which is meant to commemorate the fallen pilots of World War 1, the famous Tower Bridge suddenly appeared in front of him:

"Until that moment I hadn't thought at all that there would be Tower Bridge, of course. It would have been enough to simply fly over it, but suddenly the thought of flying through the bridge piers crossed my mind. I had only ten seconds to grapple with this tempting proposition, which few ground combat pilots of any nation could have resisted. Years of rapid low-level flight made my decision easy."

After the breathtaking maneuver, the commander paid visits to many more bases before darting headlong past his target airfield, landing and being arrested. Knowing that Pollock's justification for his aerial maneuvers would win him much public acclaim, the politicians did not put him on trial but released him on "medical grounds." The proud RAF pilot went public anyway and received support from all sides.

#london #towerbridge #royalairforce

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Our Voiceover: https://www.fiverr.com/brianpedersonvo

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction
0:51 Protesting Politicians
1:44 Tower Bride Incident
2:39 A Hero?

Sources:
[1] Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Hunter_Tower_Bridge_incident
[2] Air Show: https://www.flickr.com/photos/24931020@N02/15063818921/in/album-72157646563689188/
[3] Cockpit https://www.flickr.com/photos/7th_tactical_fighter_squadron_philippine_air_force/4086779414/in/album-72157629070100902/:
[4] Flyby: https://www.flickr.com/photos/147040950@N06/49700656761/in/album-72157716899705317/
[5] Alan Pollock: https://www.theywerethere.co.uk/the-project/about-the-project/

Official Page of Alan Pollock: https://www.theywerethere.co.uk/the-project/alan-pollock/

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