Flight Lieutenant Alan Pollock who flew RAF Hunter under Tower Bridge dies age 89

Flight Lieutenant Alan Pollock, who gained instant fame in April 1968 when he flew his RAF Hawker Hunter jet fighter past the Houses of Parliament, has died at the age of 89.



Navigating along the River Thames, before boldly flying through the closed Tower Bridge, Flt Lt Pollock said he was protesting the failure of the government to recognise the 50th anniversary of the founding of the RAF in 1918.

Flying from RAF Tangmere in West Sussex, he feigned radio failure and managed to slip away from the four other Hawker Hunters he was in formation with to carry out the manoeuvre.

He had managed to fly towards the capital avoiding civilian flight routes, before coming in over Battersea and Vauxhall bridges and opening his throttle to, as quoted in the Telegraph: "wake up our MPs and remind other august figures, sitting chair-bound at their ministerial desks below, that we still had a fighting Air Force, one small unit of which was celebrating its anniversary, despite the dead hand of government policy."

By this stage, the Hunter was flying so low that people looking out of the sixth-floor windows at the Ministry of Defence building had to look down to see the aircraft.

Knowing he would likely be punished by the RAF for his disobedience, Flt Lt Pollock wanted his daring action to have an impact, so, after flying low past the Houses of Parliament a few times, he changed tactic.

"I was travelling slowly... until I got to the Thames because I mean it makes very little noise, the Hunter throttled back," he said in a 2018 interview with BFBS.

"But then I thought, you know, have a bit of the Rolls-Royce Avon over Parliament and, amazingly, on that day... they were actually debating aircraft noise – you couldn't make it up."

Strangely enough, Flt Lt Pollock was never court-martialled, but was released by the RAF on medical grounds.

In fact, in the aftermath, he received hundreds of letters of support from the public, his fellow RAF colleagues and even a barrel of beer from the British Overseas Airways Corporation airline, the predecessor of British Airways.

He later worked for various defence firms and remained a devoted member of the RAF Historical Society.

His maverick act ensured he will forever be remembered in the history of aviation.

Source: https://www.forcesnews.com/services/raf/flight-lieutenant-alan-pollack-who-flew-raf-plane-under-tower-bridge-dies-age-89