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London 2012

  • Dicky Patounas
  • Interview by: Ewan Burnett

Transcript

The Olympics was taking place

so we were actually then helping integrate

into defending the U.K. for once.

No threat occurred but you know, we were very ready

so we had Typhoons in Northolt

on very, very, very short notice to get airborne,

you know sat in the cockpit, literally

for key moments throughout the games

and or actually airborne through key moments

throughout the games so like the opening ceremony

and things of that nature.

And so the opening ceremony, I was either Typhoon airborne

at the time, so I was 20 miles north of London

at 20,000 feet and I had, on my radar, I had the Red Arrows.

It was 12 minutes past eight, so 20:12

and that's the point they were gonna go over

the Olympic stadium as part of the opening ceremony.

And seven years, no six years previously,

I'd been leading the Red Arrows doing the fly past

over London, over Trafalgar Square

when it got announced that we had won the Olympic bid

and then, you know, six years on to be

in a Typhoon, yeah, protecting London with the Red Arrows

on my radar was quite a circle which was nice.

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