Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Hurtling along at 320mph, the passenger jet was just 28ft above the runway - with its landing gear raised.

However, this was no emergency, but a stunt by one of Britain’s most senior pilots.

Captain Ian Wilkinson performed the astonishing “fly-by” manoeuvre to entertain VIP passengers on the maiden flight of the 230-ton Boeing 777-300ER.

The stunt was whooped and cheered by spectators at Boeing headquarters in Seattle, Washington, and the pilot was given a champagne toast after landing in Hong Kong.

But 55-year-old Captain Wilkinson was fired from his £250,000-a-year job with the Cathay Pacific airline after footage of the incident was posted on websites including YouTube.

An airline insider said: “He is a very senior captain nearing the end of a highly-distinguished career but he seems to have thrown it all away for a moment of madness.”

Captain Wilkinson, who has lived in Hong Kong for 15 years, was the chief pilot for Cathay Pacific’s Boeing 777 fleet and in charge of a team of hundreds. Among his 30 passengers on the fateful flight was the airline’s British chairman, Chris Pratt, CBE.

After taking off from the Boeing plant, the captain wheeled the huge £100million jet around and swooped over the runway with undercarriage raised.

He was congratulated on arrival at Cathay Pacific’s Hong Kong HQ and even pictured in the airline newsletter raising a glass with executives in celebration of the maiden flight.

After film appeared on the internet, Captain Wilkinson was suspended ahead of a disciplinary hearing last week when he was dismissed.

His British co-pilot Ray Middleton, 47, who is understood to have taken instructions from Captain Wilkinson and to have been unaware that the fly-by was unauthorised, was suspended from training duties for six months.

Captain Wilkinson did not return calls for comment yesterday. He is understood to be considering an appeal against his dismissal.

A spokesman for Cathay Pacific said that the fly-by had been approved by air traffic controllers in Seattle after a call from the pilot but not by the airline, which was the reason Captain Wilkinson had been sacked.

Another senior pilot with the airline said: “Wilkinson was very much one of the elite in Cathay Pacific and would have been very chummy with the airline executives he was flying that day.

“If no one else had found out about it, the incident would probably have gone no further. But once it began circulating on the internet and Hong Kong’s Civil Aviation Department got wind of it, that was the end of him.

“Maiden flights are treated as a bit of a jolly for executives with lots of champagne flowing and these fly-bys used to be done for a wheeze in the old days.

“But they are dangerous because however good the pilot thinks he is, he isn’t trained for it and the planes aren’t designed for it.

“Wilkinson was showing off, and most of the pilots might be sympathetic but they feel he got what he deserved when he was sacked.”

(Daily Mail)