Celebration was the order of the day for the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), City of London Police and Metropolitan Police Service after they smashed the world record for the fastest aircraft pull, with the help of a British Airways jumbo jet.

The previous Guinness World Record time of 59.13 seconds, held by Virgin Atlantic, was beaten by 5.8 seconds this morning (Wednesday September 27) at British Airways’ Heathrow maintenance base. The new world record is 53.33 seconds.

The Boeing 747-400 weighed 205 tonnes. It was pulled 100 metres by sixty officers from the three police forces including Sir Ronnie Flanagan, Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The weight was equivalent to 3.42 tonnes per person.

The event raised £15,000 for the RUC Benevolent Fund.

Sir Ronnie Flanagan said: “We are all extremely pleased that the pull was such a success. Not only have we beaten the current record, we have also money for the RUC Benevolent Fund. We are indebted to British Airways for all it has done to support this event.”

Peter Read, British Airways’ director of Heathrow said: “We were only too happy to provide the aircraft for this record breaking fund-raiser. It was incredible to watch. The officers put every ounce of strength they had into the pull. On behalf of everyone at British Airways, I’d like to congratulate them on their fantastic achievement.”

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