Jeapes Tours
It was in 1975 and I was a military ATCO at West Drayton on a ‘fam’ flight organised by ‘Jeapes Tours’. This was supposed to be a trip to Kenya but when I arrived at Gatwick at midnight for the Tradewinds 707 flight I was informed that my flight had changed and to get on that aircraft. Where am I going ? I asked. Somewhere interesting he said and disappeared.
The crew put me into a nylon netted room behind the cockpit and left me sleeping. I awoke and stumbled into the cockpit as we were in the final landing phase. I looked out of the window and saw gun emplacements and tanks. ‘Where are we’ I sheepishly asked. Benghazi in Lybia said the Captain. Fuel is cheap here but it is a Russian military airbase !! I was a Flight Lieutenant in the RAF and there was a cold war on. I rushed to remove any trace of military addresses from my papers and luggage labels. The Russian Officer boarded the aircraft with two armed guards to check the papers and pointing at me said ‘Who is he’. Luckily the Captain only knew that I was a West Drayton ATCO so assuming I was a civvy he told the officer that I was a CAA Official.
Naturally I counted all the MiGs and made a mental note of everything (Me a spy !! I’ll get a medal for this !!).
We left without incident to continue to Mogadishu and a red tape hold up which had the potential to delay us for several days. I went to the tower to look around and spotted an Army Major who looked familiar. We had been on the same Shawbury ATC course in 1969 so after swapping life stories he told me that he was the ATC boss. I explained our predicament and within 30 mins we were airborne and away to Bombay.
China was interesting but I didn’t tell the RAF that that was where I had been !!
Gisajob