Partner Article

Helicopter pilot hit with fine after train ‘buzzed’

It was supposed to be a wonderful cross-country jaunt on a steam engine that the 300 passengers on board would never forget.

And it is certainly a voyage that will live long in the memory, but not for the reasons intended.

Soon after the Edinburgh-London journey began, passengers noticed the train was being “buzzed” and that a helicopter was flying low over it, criss-crossing its path.

Some were so worried they immediately contacted the Civil Aviation Authority, whilst others filmed what was happening on their mobile phones.

What none of them knew was that the pilot, Vincent Campion, 44, had been hired by the steam train owners to film a documentary of the journey.

Campion, who is highly experienced and has helped shoot a number of films before, flew the film crew to within a few hundred feet of the vintage train as it thundered south, criss-crossing its path to get good shots of the plume of steam billowing from the funnel.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .