Lucky escape for a hapless traffic PC routinely patrolling the A1 Great North Road east of Edinburgh as a Tornado fighter jet had him locked into its Sidewinder air-to-surface sights and lived to tell the tale.
Mistaking the rapidly-approaching £multi-million piece of military hardware for a feckless car driver, the police officer in question took aim with his very own hand-held speed gun and prepared himself to capture what he presumed to be a 'vehicle' registering 300mph on his hi-tech equipment.
As his radar gun suddenly ceased to work, the perplexed officer failed in his frenzied attempts to reset the electronically-jammed piece of law-enforcing kit and attempt to catch the law-breaker in the act of what he still believed was an automotive misdemeanor. It was only when he was near-deafened by the accompanying roar of the Tornado as it appeared on his immediate horizon that the breadth of his misjudgment began to sink in.
Engaged in low-level operational manoeuvres over the Borders district near the North Sea close to North Berwick in Scotland, it wasn't until the NATO Tornado returned to its base, and the officer his police HQ, that the brevity of the incident emerged. And the less life-endangering sparks began to fly.
The Chief Constable – upon having the incident reported to them by the traffic PC – wasted no time in firing off a curt salvo in the direction of the RAF's liason office, only to receive an equally concise retort in return explaining rather pointedly that his employee was fortunate given that the Tornado had automatically locked-on to what it considered 'hostile radar equipment'.
And but for the pilot's measured response to the aircraft's perceived threat – over-riding the system prior to missile launch - averted the potential scenario of the instant demise of said traffic cop.
