April 17th Informed by the pilot that the Lear jet needed eight hundred and seventy-five metres to land and the runway was closer to eight sixty the two men held their straps tighter as the plane screamed in and juddered to a halt. Being a small airport the steps went down and grabbing their bags the two man DIC roving team ran towards a waiting police car. “Evening gents I’ll brief you on the way.” A senior police officer greeted them at the waiting car. They sidled into the back seat and the police car light flashing and siren blaring rushed them to Perth, down the 94 from Pitroddie, the Perth Road, into the city centre across South Street Bridge, round Marshall Place and finally through a police cordon into Leonard Street. In the car they had been told that there were armed police surrounding the station, staff at the station had been evacuated and the signals were red from Perth on so that the train’s automatic systems wouldn’t let it move. The police were going to take over the engines, staff would be asked to leave first and the speaker system would explain that there was a fault with the engine and people had to get off.
