“I’d had absolutely no idea that Tower Bridge would be there. It was easy enough to fly over it, but the idea of flying through the spans suddenly struck me. I had just ten seconds to grapple with the seductive proposition that few ground attack pilots of any nationality could have resisted. Years of fast low-level strike flying made the decision simple . . . ,” Alan Pollock, former RAF Hunter pilot
On April 5, 1968, Royal Air Force (RAF) Hunter pilot Alan Pollock engaged in unauthorized low-flying over some London landmarks before flying through the span of Tower Bridge across the Thames. This occurrence is known as the Hawker Hunter Tower Bridge incident. His actions were intended to honor the 50th anniversary of the RAF’s formation and to protest the Ministry of Defense for failing to recognize it.
Due to British Defense Minister Duncan Sandys’ 1957 Defense White Paper, the British defense industry experienced a shift in emphasis from manned aircraft to guided missiles in the 1960s. Low morale prevailed throughout the aerial services of the British armed forces, and the British aircraft industry had fallen into general decline.
Pollock admired the RAF and believed a flypast over London would be a fitting way to mark its 50th anniversary. There had been a few parades and an official supper, but no flypast. He thought that this was a terrible slight.
“One thing that was in the Air Force’s blood was that you celebrated in the air, not on the ground,” Pollock, now 82, says in an article that appeared in the Daily Mail.
He was serving with No. 1 Squadron, the RAF’s oldest squadron, at the time. As a result, he felt it was his duty to take the initiative in making sure the half-centenary was appropriately observed. Pollock made the decision to put on his own flypast.
On April 4, he and three other Hunter pilots from his squadron had flown from their base at West Raynham in Norfolk to RAF Tangmere in Sussex, the former home of No. 1 Squadron, where they were helping to celebrate the base being given the freedom of the city of Chichester. He decided that the following day, on their way back, he would make a detour over the capital.
On April 4, he and three other Hunter pilots from his squadron had flown from their base in West Raynham, Norfolk, to RAF Tangmere, the former location of No. 1 Squadron, where they were taking part in the base’s celebration of Chichester’s independence. He decided to take a detour through the city on their return trip the following day.
“It was worth flying over London, even if I was going to get court-martialled,” Alan says. At the very least, a trial would give him a chance to have his say on the problems facing the Air Force.
On the morning of April 5, not long after takeoff, Alan separated himself from the other Hunters.
By typing out coded messages on his radio transmitter, he informed his fellow pilots that he had lost visual contact and that he was having trouble sustaining spoken communication.
He arrived at Heathrow Airport in a short amount of time, flying low to avoid commercial aircraft, and made a right turn to head for Richmond Park and then the Thames.
As Pollock recalls, flying over the river would be the safest and quietest route through the capital. “I went over the Thames because I didn’t want to cause any trouble.”
Keeping to the middle of the river and keeping an eye out for helicopters, he descended to a height of around 150 feet before starting to fly over the bridges.
Angry by defense budget cuts and what he perceived to be the Labour government’s involvement in the lack of anniversary celebrations, Pollock made his way to Downing Street and Parliament. He could see Westminster in the distance as he crossed the Vauxhall Bridge. He turned on Hunter’s throttle and started three low, loud circuits of Parliament just as Big Ben signaled noon.
“I put the power on then. I thought: ‘Stuff it, let them hear some noise!’ The funny thing was that at the time, they were discussing noise abatement.”
Iain Duncan Smith’s father, the Spitfire ace Wilfred Duncan Smith, reportedly claimed Pollock later that he heard his engines from the sixth story of the Ministry of Defense building while he spoke to Sir John Grandy, chief of the Air Staff, according to Daily Mail.
Sir John looked up towards the sky, trying to see the plane. Duncan Smith had to put him right, telling him, “No, look down there!”
Meanwhile, Alan was searching for Downing Street. ‘I wanted to make a noise over No. 10 as well. I didn’t have a target map so I couldn’t see where it was.’
As he flew over the RAF Memorial beside Whitehall and continued downstream into the city, he waved Hunter’s wings in homage. The airplane safely passed over London Bridge, Hungerford Bridge, Waterloo Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge, and Southwark Bridge.
Then he was in for a surprise. ‘There, staring me in the face, was Tower Bridge. I’d forgotten it was there!
Later, he described his choice to fly through Tower Bridge in the book Empire of the Clouds: When Britain’s Aircraft Ruled the World.
“Until this very instant, I’d had absolutely no idea that, of course, Tower Bridge would be there. It was easy enough to fly over it, but the idea of flying through the spans suddenly struck me. I had just ten seconds to grapple with the seductive proposition that few ground attack pilots of any nationality could have resisted. My brain started racing to reach a decision. Years of fast, low-level strike flying made the decision simple…”
Pollock added: “Right at the last minute, as my cockpit canopy was just below the bridge and the girders were all around me, in that microsecond I remembered I’d got a tail fin behind and I thought: ‘I’m going to lose the fin!’”
The Hunter made it through somehow. A cyclist on the bridge lost control of his bike out of fear and tore his trousers. The Tower Bridge Watchman, George Tapper, was nearby. “There was the most thunderous roar. I looked up and, whoomph, a big silver jet roared by,” he recalled.
He flew inverted over numerous airfields (Wattisham, Lakenheath, and Marham) while traveling to his base at RAF West Raynham, where he was formally arrested by Flying Officer Roger Gilpin an hour later. He was aware that his flying privileges would likely be revoked as a result of this show.
In the immediate aftermath of the incident, his unit was posted to North Africa without him while he remained in charge.
Alan’s unit received hundreds of congratulations messages from RAF colleagues and the members of the public, as well as a barrel of beer from British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC).
An all-party motion of support, tabled in the House of Commons, was signed by six MPs (four of whom had been in the RAF).
Then, for medical reasons, he was invalidated from the RAF. This prevented Pollock from explaining the reason behind his stunt and maybe obtaining public support, leading to a court-martial and embarrassing the government.
Pollock was the first pilot to do it in a jet aircraft, even though earlier pilots had flown beneath the upper span of Tower Bridge.
Photo by Michael Rondot via collectair.co.uk, Alan Pollock image Royal Air Force via Jever Steam Laundry, Tower Bridge image and Mike Freer – Touchdown-aviation via Wikipedia