I was listening to the whole thing develop on the way into LHR. Was wondering whether it was radio failure or a decompression gone wrong.
Started to get serious when he was told to head east by order of His Majesty’s Government, thought Typhoon might be launched but it was a weekend and would they have any serviceable ones? We all did a double take on the shoot-you-down bit, though.
Glad they eventually made contact, pilot on the radio sounded quite shaken to begin with but eventually asked to carry on to Southend but Stansted it was! At least it was VMC on top so everybody could see. Does make you wonder if interception is now normal following a radio failure, even if you are sticking exactly to published procedure?
IMC at night in bad weather could be another game entirely...