We had been escorted by the police to a locked-down military aerodrome and stood on the Tarmac as a squall blew rain sideways into our faces.

Umbrellas buckled, the cold penetrated us to the core, yet none of our huddle of reporters and photo­graphers would have missed this for the world.

When the rain finally eased, the sky was pierced by an aircraft’s navigation lights, and minutes later a BAe 146 jet was on the runway, a royal standard fluttering from the cockpit like a pennant on a chauffeured limousine.

‘Historic’ is one of the most over-used words in the English language, particularly by journalists, but on this occasion we were unarguably witnesses to history being made.