Intercepted??

[G-SPOTs Lost]

On a bergi departure out of schiphol this afternoon about 1415Z poped out on top at about FL80 and at a much higher level was a four engined jet contrailing and one further contrail to the left and slightly behind......

It was quite a shock to see this happen in real life. I can only hope it was on escort and not intercept duties.

Anybody shine any light? it was westbound.

[TrafficTraffic]

I think it would be safe to assume the aircraft were at different levels...now I know you are going to say "but they looked like they were very close..."

In reality they were probably at least 1000' apart and probably more likely 2000' (1 at 320 and 1 at 340 so 1 at 330 can go the other way).

Your eyes can play tricks on you...I mean look at Popstars for instance :eek:


cos I just noticed you said westbound - of course we would have to call for the FL320 because of the FLA... oh dont worry

[Itsonyatv]

There was a French air force KC-135 and Mirage 2 flying around in formation today doing a scenic tour of Europe by all accounts. This was probably what you saw.;)

[Hippy]

I have no idea where a BERGI dep from EHAM will take you, but seeing as I am not familiar, it is probably to the East. Anyway, that is largely irrelevant. Most probably *US, almost certainly a tanker & chick. It is common practice for fast jet fighter/bomber re-positioning on a long trip (for many reasons, including: Aircraft delivery, Tech replacement, routine rotation, exercise deployment/recovery, etc..., etc...) to travel under-the-wing of a tanker. Such flights may & are conducted, with utmost safety, along the same air routes as used by passenger carrying air transport aircraft. They are treated as, and obey the same rules as, any airliner. A novelty factor for 'those passengers on the left side of the aircraft....', but otherwise, a routine event, neither escort nor intercept.

For the morbid, or any journos reading, the only 'event' in UK airspace yesterday (11/9) was a BE20, en-route Scotland to London early that morning, who suffered a 'radio failure' near Leeds. Sphincters twitched, only very slightly, before a genuine RT fail was confirmed and a hi-jack situation eliminated. A non-event.
Rgds,
Hippy.

*'Most probably US' because, from evidence:
a) Being high level near Amsterdam, Westbound, were obviously en-route to UK, CAN or USA.
b) UK will usually use 3 engined jet for long-range tanking (L101). We have 4 engined tanker (VC10), but they have pairs of engines that would 'appear' as a 'two engined' aircraft from viewing contrails at that distance.
c) US routinely use 4 engined KC135 on that route.
d) CAN had no notified activity in that area.
e) Could quite easily have been the French KC135 & MIR reported, I can neither confirm nor deny, but sounds like a plausible routine event.

[G-SPOTs Lost]

Delighted to hear it was nothing sinister. The mood for the remainder of the flight was somewhat sombre.

Captain will be chuffed when I tell him.

Thanks for clarification

[eyeinthesky]

Whilst Hippy's information on the Mil traffic is interesting, I'm afraid the real explanation is much more mundane.

Bergi departures head NW from Amsterdam leading into the North Sea sector of London's airspace via ELDIN. The contrails you saw were almost certainly high level CIVIL traffic on the airway as already mentioned. Trying to judge vertical separation of 2000 ft from 24000 ft beneath is a bit tricky!

We would not allow tankers and chicks to operate IN the airway if we could avoid it, so if they are there they will be through MC16 and south of UY70/UL602. Must say I don't often see tankers and chicks en-route, although they do often fly around in the AARAs spread about the London and Scottish FIRs.

[TrafficTraffic]

Without Actually breaching any security - secrecy acts..

There was, as stated earlier a French Air Force KC35 and a Mirage IV (not II) in formation, operating GAT from S to N on their way from (funnily enough) France to Scandanavia - but they went through a little earlier.

Still blame it on parallex error (can you get that vertically?)

[OscarTango]

the last week there was a lot of military traffic proceeding GAT from Scandinavia to their respective home countries... one swissline aircraft enjoyed a formation of 3 F-18 hornets on his twelve o'clock, opposite direction... must have been a nice picture opportunity :)

[BEXIL160]

1000ft above (or below) I hope, otherwise the picture would probably suffer from a little camera shake!!:) :)

Rgds BEX

[OscarTango]

hehe, 1000 ft...right..I would have been blamed for the airmiss, since military formations are considered non-RVSM :D ...
no, seriously..the F18's were more then 3000 feet above..

[ComJam]

G-SPOT

Why was the "mood somewhat sombre" surely we all see contrails closeish together all the time. Especially over the North Sea where Air to Air Refuelling is commonplace.

Just a question

Cheers :)