Night flight over Moskwa, 1992
In May 1992, I occupied a left window seat of Cathay Pacific flight from HKG to LHR, departed 00.15. The CX flight flew the "great circle" which overflew, most of the hours ,ex USSR air space.
The F/A religiously told all passengers to keep the window shutters closed at all times. It was dark and everybody were sleeping, so it was okay with me, but a fellow passenger at the right side tried to have a peek, almost at once two of the female F/A urgently ,or in an almost "histeric" instruction requested him to close it immediately.
Fifteen minutes later, the cabin was in a total peace and silence. The light was dimmed to almost totally dark. I managed to lift my window shutter about an inch. Through the gap, in the faint moonlight, I could recognized two forms of jet fighters, down below at 7 o'clock position.
My question is, was it normal if a commercial flight overflying that area escorted or threaten by jet fighters? If yes then who paid the fuel bill for those fighters? Or it was just a close encounter like the unfortunate KAL 007 over Kamchatka ?
Thanks for any illuminating answer or information given to this question.
PK-GDU
Last edited by PK-GDU; 23rd Apr 2007 at 09:58.