Heathrow Director
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!!!
Seaboard never operated into Gatwick, they only operated into Heathrow.