Not for the first time did a test go awry.....
Back in Autumn 1983 I was twiddling my thumbs on the WTM Ops Bridge when all of a sudden that well-known 'brrrrrrrr' sound came over the telebrief. "WTF gives, Neat?" quoth I over the hotline. "We don't know either" came the helpful reply, followed by "Q1 and Q2 at cockpit readiness" from the guys in the Q-shed.
I took a risk....
"Maintain"
I then told Neat that the clock was ticking and asked for the MC to find out WTF was going on before Q scrambled. Sharpish...
Fortunately, by then someone had indeed found out. Some wanquerre had decided to do a line test without telling anyone - and his test tones sounded identical to the 'real thing'. So we relaxed Southern Q, then fielded the DFC's rather peeved phonecall a few minutes later....
No Sovietski missiles, just some tit conducting a test without clearance...
