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British Speed Trap

Heh. It's not new, but it's still funny...

Two British traffic patrol officers from North Berwick were involved in an unusual incident while checking for speeding motorists on the A-1 Great North Road. One of the officers used a hand-held radar device to check the speed of a vehicle approaching over the crest of a hill, and was surprised when the speed was recorded at over 300 mph. Their radar suddenly stopped working and the officers were not able to reset it.

Just then a deafening roar over the treetops revealed that the radar had in fact latched on to a NATO Tornado fighter jet, which was engaged in a low-flying exercise over the Border district, approaching from the North Sea.

Back at police headquarters, the chief constable fired off a stiff complaint to the RAF Liaison office. Back came the reply in true laconic RAF style:

"Thank you for your message, which allows us to complete the file on this incident. You may be interested to know that the tactical computer in the Tornado had detected the presence of, and subsequently locked onto, your hostile radar equipment and automatically sent a jamming signal back to it.

"Furthermore, an air-to-ground missile aboard the fully-armed aircraft had also automatically locked onto your equipment.

"Fortunately, the pilot flying the Tornado recognized the situation for what it was, quickly responded to the missile systems alert status, and was able to override the automated
defense system before the missile was launched and your hostile radar installation was destroyed. Good Day..."

The Coppers were prolly out looking for this lot:

H/t, Bob W.

6 Comments

I would have loved to see this in person. back in '73 my dad did a low level on a Montana Highway Patrolman runnning radar west of Havre on US 2. He was in a Cessna 172 Skyhawk. The Trooper was a family friend. He said his radar showed 135.
 
AWESOME!
 
Whoa! Talk about Friendly Fire!!
 
I hate to be a myth buster, but none of the speed-measurement radars I've ever used (I'm a cop in civilian life) go that high. Once a certain speed is reached (it depends on the make of radar), the display just goes blank.
 
K Newman.. keep in mind, these limeys were most likely reading the speed in KPH.. 300kph = ~186mph Even the real "Mythbusters" recorded speeds over that with radar on their shows IIRC. ;)
 
Heh. I don't really believe the story. I just think it's funny and gave me an intro for the video... 8^ D
 
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