Our school was lined up with the approach to Northolt, so when during break time this Pan Am 707 drifted overhead our playground us aircraft spotters were rather confused. The rest a history, the gasometer at South Harrow aligned with Northolt and the one at Southall aligned with the then runway 23 at LHR. Easy mistake to make. The 707 managed to stop on Notholt's rather short runway, and, a few days later minus all the seats and anything else that could be removed it positioned to Heathrow.
The resulting painting of "NO" (Northolt) on the South Harrow gasometer and "LHR" on the other was most certainly not full proof as a few years later, sitting P3 in a Trident, I tapped the Captain and fellow copilot on their shoulders and pointed out the error of their ways.... "Heathrow is over there on our left, that's Northolt ahead and there's my school"
Last edited by woodpecker; 1st Jan 2016 at 10:54.