Teletype Error results in Close Call

I was coming back to England. I was shipping back to England, and I arranged transport from one of our aircraft out of Foggia. I was in Naples at the time. And I went on as a passenger. And we were supposed to come into Homesly South, which is just around Southampton. And when we got over there, the tower said, “No, we’re below minimums here.” But they got 3,000 feet over at Ford, which was down towards Bournemouth. And so we started to go down, and down, and the pilot knew I was aboard. And we were circling in the clouds, and he said, “Can I go down on the radio altimeter? ” I said, “No, no, no, no, no!” That thing was built for torpedo dropping. “Go out to sea and come down.” And he did, and we broke cloud much less than 300 feet. We came across the coast. The kids were playing in the schoolyard, and I could see the expression on their faces. The tower was closed down, so we landed. We didn’t know which ... we just landed. Anyway, security came out, “What are you guys doing? ” “Well,” we said, “Somebody put an extra zero on the teletype.” And I didn’t realize until about a day later, that if I hadn’t been on board, and if he hadn’t asked that question, they would’ve hit the hills if they’d had gone down any lower. Because there’s a whole range of hills along the south coast of England. But I didn’t realize it until, it was about a day later, and I went, “Oh my God!”