A plane with a special message on a banner flew over Darlington on Monday evening (July 4), leading many residents to wonder who the recipient was.
The banner read: “Happy 70th Birthday Capt. Tim Neville!”
The Northern Echo asked who the recipient of this thoughtful gesture was and Joe and Anice Neville, Capt. Tim’s son and daughter, got in touch.
Anice and Joe organised the birthday surprise and they and mum Carol, Tim’s wife, struggled to keep the surprise a secret.
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Anice said: “My dad was so overwhelmed when he saw the banner. It was difficult to keep it a secret but it seemed an appropriate birthday surprise because he loves anything related to flying.”
Captain Tim was in the RAF from 1970 to 1990. He flew a variety of fighter jets including F4s, F106s and A10s.
He left the Air Force in 1991 and worked as an air taxi pilot, before joining the Flight Refuelling Aviation at Teesside Airport in 1993.
In 1997 he became a commercial pilot with Airtours, which became MyTravel and then merged with Thomas Cook.
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Anice said: “He has just always loved flying and knew from when he was 14 what he wanted to do when he joined the Air Cadets. When he was 18 he joined the RAF.
“He also went to the U.S. in 1981 and spent three years in Florida where he was an instructor at the Fighter Weapons School.”
At Thomas Cook he became the Fleet Operations Manager for the North and then worked for the company as a Training Captain until he retired in 2017.
He still flies with the Northumbria Gliding Club and, until recently, oversaw the aircraft used to tow the gliders. He, however, has recently stepped down from this role as he was diagnosed with a fourth tumour in his neck late last year. He’s now had an 18-year battle with cancer, and is supported by the team at James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough.
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Anice said: “He’s always been a lovely dad to my brother, Joe, and me. He’s always been extremely generous. He always knew what he wanted to do in life and has always been very family-focused.”
The banner was organised with Sky Banner Ltd which seems to be the only company in the country that still has a license to fly an aircraft with a banner.
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