It might have looked like a military coup or a scene from Kiefer Sutherland’s ‘24’ – it is filmed round here, sometimes, after all.
But mystery surrounds the convoy of sinister looking vehicles passing through Ruislip in the evening of Tuesday, October 14.
A Gulfstream Five jet with Italian registration was spotted on the ground at RAF Northolt in West End Road, Ruislip, and snapped by Gazette reader Alan Palmer, who has worked for British Airways for many years.
Then a convoy moved out from the base and with police motorcyclists escorting it, and headed into central London.
Mr Palmer managed to snatch a couple of quick pictures as the convoy trundled past.
“It was really spooky,” he said. There were probably about a dozen or 15 vehicles in the first convoy and about the same in the second,” said Mr Palmer, who professes to carrying his camera everywhere.
"A top of the range business jet is a very uncommon visitor for Northolt," he said.
The convoy did not, in fact, contain Hussain Osman as previously reported, and the authorities have been unable to confirm what it was all about.
Locals are accustomed to seeing VIP vehicles entering and leaving the base, and when Prime Minister David Cameron uses the air base he is whisked in and out through temporary roadblocks set up by police motorcycle outriders.
