Bloody horrible people! A colleague escorted his wife and infant child back to the UK, following the death of his older child in Aden. He watched the customs at London (don't remember which airport he used) and when very close to his turn at the head of the queue, he pinched the poor little sod, causing it to howl a lot. He spent a minimal amount of time with the Customs as they didn't want the noise!
ICM: Trust me, we flew over Armenia and Georgia. This came from the crew member who brought out the chart. The chinagraph line was not thick and went nowhere Turkey.
Warmtoast: Thanks for the additional photos. As my flight from London was on a Britannia, and was my first flight on a powered aircraft, I became rather fond of that aircraft. Having said that, I once flew on an Argosy from Aden to Botswana and it still brings back memories when I see examples such as the one at Cosford.
As for the VC10, my first flight on one of these was not until I joined BA/IAL in 1977 and travelled to Jeddah on one. Using staff travel in addition to my regular home leave, I flew many trips on VC10s LHR to JFK, Tokyo to Hong Kong, Colombo and Seychelles, Mombasa (diverted from Nairobi), Kahrtoum etc.
Wile enduring some training at Rockwell Collins in Dallas in 1978, I was surprised to find that many of their international staff would often turn up at JFK on the outward leg of a foreign trip and look for people with tickets on a VC10 and swap them for the 707 tickets. They loved it!