<<I think I recall hearing Northolt doing PAR approaches about 1970 whilst listening to my Air Band radio....>>
PAR is not ILS and would only be available to aircraft in contact with the PAR unit. Those I mentioned were talking to me and should have been following the Heathrow ILS. One reason for my post was to point out the lack of ILS at Northolt when you had said a B720 "got on the glidepath".
I was working at Heathrow when a US registered cargo DC-8 landed which should have been at Gatwick. On take-off from Shannnon it received a message from its company to divert to London. Now the company and the crew understood "London" to mean Gatwick whereas every normal person interpreted "London" as Heathrow Airport. So.... the various ATC units were informed that the DC-8 was diverting to Heathrow and routed it to Ockham. Soon after Woodley, Heathrow turned it back downwind for 10L. The pilot asked ATC to confirm the heading but continued on it. A little later it was put on a closing heading for 10L (pilot still didn't twig) and went straight through the ILS. By a remarkable coincidence the frequency for 10L had changed the day before and when the pilot said he was not receiving the ILS the controller replied that it had changed and passed him the new frequency, whereupon the aircrftf flew the ILS and landed. As it turned off the runway, and Ground Control said there was no stand allocated, the pilot uttered a common expletive and explained that he should have been at Gatwick!!!
On another occasion, a foreign military 707 was routed to Biggin, again for landing on 10L. Descent was given and as the controller turned the aircraft on to a closing heading for the ILS he gave the pilot the range of "10 miles from touchdown". The pilot replied something like: "Negative, sir, we are 158 miles from touchdown". Turned out he should have gone to Manchester!!! Whoever filed his flight plan wrote the destination as EGLL!
Last edited by HEATHROW DIRECTOR; 14th Dec 2010 at 13:59.