Chinook and the dog kennel....
How many remember a dim and distant day when British Airways Helicopters got their first Chinook for offshore work? On the way to Aberdeen it dropped into the BAH base at Beccles for all to admire. On departure, the Captain did a low run past the office and departure lounge to impress all and sundry.
As you'll know, the Wokka delivers a huge down draft. No body noticed this until it passed the end of the block. Here was a kennel containing Rover the security and drug dog. The wind picked up both the kennel and dog, and blew them across the car park, bouncing off various vehicles left by the bears going offshore. The kennel was trashed, the dog had a very bad trip and several cars got scratched and dented.
The best part for me was sitting in the office when my boss had to call up a gentleman offshore to report the damage to his car. The call went something like: ' Mr Smith, your car just got trashed by a low flying dog kennel.....'
Cue gales of laughter from the staff, and a shocked silence from offshore measured in micro-seconds before a roar came back. He was sore displeased, and thought we were all taking the p*** - it didn't help that this sad event just happened to occur on 1st April....