Maida Vale minicab driver buys Saddam Hussein’s fighter jet

A Maida Vale minicab driver has treated himself to one of the most unlikely pieces of memorabilia – one of Saddam Hussein’s old fighter jets.

Shamsu Miah, 39, of Sutherland Avenue, spent �7,000 on the Russian MiG 15 jet which last flew eight years ago.

Unsurprisingly the jet – built during the Cold War – is too big for Westminster’s streets and is stored in a hangar at RAF Manston in Kent.

The aircraft is in full working order but Mr Miah, who has never flown a plane, has no intention of taking to the skies. “I’m too scared to start the thing in case it does go up and I don’t know how to get it back down,” he said.

“Some people may have bought a plane but I don’t know many people who have bought a fighter jet.

“These things don’t come along every day.”

Mr Miah, who has been a taxi driver since 2001, is a director of Imperial Air Salvage which scraps and recycles old passenger and cargo planes.

But there will be no scrapping of this fighter jet, which he says is for keeps.