The last thing that Flight Lieutenant Jane Pickersgill expected when she disembarked from her final flight at RAF Lossiemouth was a marriage proposal.
The qualified tactics instructor had just stepped out of her Tornado GR4 when her intended popped the question.
Boyfriend Grant Bruce had contacted 15 Reserve Squadron’s commanding officer, Wing Commander Jon Nixon, asking for his permission to ask for her hand in marriage at the top of the stairs after she had shut down her fast jet’s engines.
To add to Flt Lt Pickersgill’s apprehension her boss was sitting in the front seat of the Tornado.
But Flt Lt Pickersgill said yes to Mr Bruce’s proposal after recovering from the initial shock. She said: “It was my last flight on XV(R) Squadron, so I was expecting to see him there as we taxied back in, but the proposal itself was a complete surprise – apparently he’d been planning to propose just after my last trip for some time.
“My last trip was with the boss in the front seat, so as well as the boss, Flight Lieutenant Rob Attrill and Flight Lieutenant Rachel Housby helped setting things up for Grant to be out on the line with champagne.”
Mr Bruce currently works as operations manager at Dolphin Geophysical, a company that supplies marine geophysical services.
The couple met in Aberdeen where Mr Bruce currently lives.
They will soon move to America as Flt Lt Pickersgill will be flying the EA 18G Growler and instructing at the US Navy’s operational conversion unit at Whidbey Island, near Seattle.
The proposal comes as a slight twist to the tradition of serving officers asking their commander for permission to get married.