Film star Tom Cruise has borrowed a Sutton man's plane, blown it up and then left him to clear up the rubbish.
Fortunately, that was all part of the agreement when Wallington plane salvage expert Mustafa Azim agreed to let the producers of Cruise's upcoming blockbuster All You Need Is Kill borrow two of his planes and blow holes in them so they could be used as props.
Mr Azim, 47, runs Imperial Air Salvage. He picks up old aircraft and repairs them or salvages what he can from them. He has a large collection of craft and agreed to let Warner Brothers borrow two of his planes, including a Boeing 737.
Mr Azim said: "Basically, we gave Tom Cruise two planes, he blew them up and then we had to come back and clear up afterwards!
"Actually, they didn't actually blow them up completely. They wanted to use them as props on a beach scene where they had already crashed.
"So, they put special explosives on them and blew holes in them and then they got a load of sand and dumped the aircraft on to it.
"Then they filmed the sequence and we came back to pick everything up."
The filming happened in Leavesden, near Watford, but Mr Azim and his team were not allowed on set at the same time as the actors, who include Cruise, Emily Blunt and Bill Paxton.
Despite this, Mr Azim was able to pick up a number of souvenirs from the filming including props like ammunition boxes, airplane controls and even two inflatable dinghies.
Mr Azim set up Imperial Air Salvage after being made redundant from his job with an airline during the global recession.
He used his redundancy to buy a decommissioned 747 which he scrapped. Since then his company has salvaged 22 more planes and has even converted one into a restaurant.
Recently he bought a plane from former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussain's old fleet.
All You Need is Kill, a science fiction film about a soldier played by Cruise, is out next year.
Story and Photos: http://www.suttonguardian.co.uk
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