I have it on good authority that the fighter was launched because there was some Pepsi on board - this is forbidden within olympic airspace. Luckily, the flight wasn't bound for LHR, so a crisis was averted by our quick-thinking boys in blue...
Looking down at Northolt yesterday, they appear to have added arrester gear.
Why, at what cost?
Having the Tiffies that close is all part of the 'seen to be doing something' attempt. It's not 1940, you know, surely some other well equipped airfield would do.
Worst job of the next fortnight: sweating in a cockpit at Northolt.
Shame they can't just have them airborne and flying around London during the games. Would be an additional attraction for the aircraft liking type of people. Seeing jets flying low level along the Thames would be just awesome.
RAF pilots "with their fingers light on the trigger", possibly a Daily Mail typo; substitute police for pilot and any Brasilian male for errant airliner .....?
I´ve got recently a image where a Typhoon looked into a C130 from the back. Would be quiete scary when that happens to a Airliner, we are not the same breed then AF.... My last encounter of that kind was back in 1997 close to the no fly zone south of Syria on the way to Camp David. The F16 jockeys had fun and we almost wet the pants. Thanks god the plane we had was decorated with Stars and Stripes, N registered, helped to ease the fear, on both sides that night.
