“Guys…this is fucking dangerous!”
It was a beautiful spring day in Toulouse in 1988. The morning sunshine washed over the A320 MSN 006 as we boarded for the aircraft’s first customer flight. After a smooth take-off, we began our checks, following the Airbus customer acceptance manual. 2 hours into our flight, we suddenly received a call on the radio. It was Airbus Operations. They informed us that they were about to carry out some impromptu formation flying and air-to-air photography!
We all looked at each other, a little confused, as Operations explained further. We were to be joined by 3 more planes, all A320s and all in different livery – Airbus, Air France, and Air Inter. Our aircraft was in British Airways in livery, which completed the set! The tower requested that we return to Toulouse Airport and follow the Airbus aircraft. Our captain banked gracefully, and as we passed overhead, we could see the three aircraft stacked in a line on the runway, ready for take-off.
As we came about, we saw the Airbus plane gun its engines and take to the sky. The captain increased the power, and we chased after it. This was not your average acceptance flight! We eventually caught up to it somewhere over the Pyrenees. Back in the cabin, my team and I are enjoying the view when, out of nowhere, the Air France aircraft suddenly pops up on our left side! They are swiftly joined by Air Inter, who suddenly emerges on our right side! Both craft held their position, and we were now formation flying, with us in the middle and the other two aircraft on either side of us. Obviously, we had confidence in our pilots, but from where we were standing, all the planes looked extremely close to each other! We moved up the cabin and entered the flight deck to see where the Airbus craft was. As I stepped in, I gasped as all I could see from the cockpit window was the back end of the aircraft! It was now right in front, with us directly underneath its tail!
My colleague was just behind me, and as he saw the tail, he blurted out what we were all thinking, “Guys…this is fucking dangerous!”
This triggered a quiet chuckle from the two pilots, one of whom was the Airbus Chief Test Pilot. Both of them were completely unconcerned, and in fact, it looked like they were thoroughly enjoying themselves!
Now that we were all in perfect, albeit slightly dangerous formation, we were asked to perform several synchronised manoeuvres by the photography aircraft currently flying above us. However, only the captain and co-pilot were privy to this information, so we were advised to return to our seats as quickly as possible and strap ourselves in as tight as the belts could manage! One of my colleagues decided to remain on the flight deck as he was enjoying the show too much. He soon regretted this when the captain was asked to climb sharply. The resulting G force sent my colleague to the floor, where he was held in place until the plane levelled out. This went on for roughly two hours!
When all the planes levelled out, we scraped our bewildered colleague off the floor and returned to the flight deck. As we squeezed into the cockpit, we watched the aircraft peel away in unison, leaving us alone. The call came through, signalling the end of the dangerous, formation-flying photo shoot, and we thanked our pilots profusely for their exemplary skills! Once things had calmed down, we completed our acceptance checks and returned to Toulouse. We had to reject the aircraft as it did not meet the required standard. But we were so full of adrenaline from the flight that the result didn’t faze us much! This resulted in a further two acceptance flights, which were sadly nowhere near as exciting as that first one, after which we finally agreed to take the aircraft. It was delivered to British Airways on the 20th, of April 1988, arriving just after midnight.
Once the aircraft was purchased, the invoice had to be sent to British Airways to clear any import duty. I handled this personally, so everything was legal and set for the aircraft’s import into Britain. Feeling mischievous, I decided to withhold this critical information from my manager! We arrived at Gatwick, and as we stepped off the aircraft, I asked him, “So, Ernie, how are you going to declare the import of a multi-million-dollar aeroplane, seeing as it’s your name on the invoice?”
“Excuse me?” he asked.
“Well, are you going to go through the red ‘something to declare’ channel at customs or the green ‘nothing to declare’ and hopefully not get caught?!”
He looked extremely puzzled by my line of questioning, and I could see him getting more anxious as we approached the customs desk. He stopped and looked at both channels for a long time, weighing up a biblical decision.
“Now is the time to make up your mind, boss. Which is it to be, red or green?”
He took the honest man’s route and started to walk towards the red channel. I followed his example and confessed whilst chuckling “I cleared it with customs before we left Toulouse!”
He whipped his head around and narrowed his eyes at me, “You bastard!” he yelled before bursting into laughter. We both walked through the green channel, grateful that neither one of us had to foot the bill!
I am happy to say that during the formation flying photo session, one of my crew happened to have a video camera in his luggage and managed to capture some of the incredible flying that took place. We were also sent several photos, one of which is pictured above. If you would like to know more, please get in touch via our contact page.
