>My mate Pete’s then-girlfriend Linda used to do announcements at Terminal 3 at Heathrow back in the 1970s.

“Air Canada flight 874 is delayed and will leave”………very long pause and then – very quickly…”sometime today”

They‘d go and sit on the balcony at Terminal 3 at Heathrow, directly under one of the speakers. They’d put the tape machine in their bag with the microphone poking out of the top and then look for a flight that had arrived in the last 40 minutes from somewhere where you‘d expect mental names.

They’d then write a letter saying, ‘Could you go and pick up etc. etc. from flight, etc.’ That way, it looked like it‘d been arranged in advance as the flight arrival details were written on the note. Wore an ID-style badge and carried a mobile so that they looked like taxi drivers and pretend to be unable to pronounce it. Handed them the bit of paper with the name written on it.

For example:

Of course they got rumbled……