North Atlantic QRA and Irish Airspace...

[Glass Ball]

Hi Ppruners!

on Tues 02 March 2010 an American Airlines 767 from Dallas, Tx to Heathrow declared a nutjob-passenger problem around 30W54N (a long way out in the Atlantic).

short version, the aircraft was joined, at some point, by a pair of Typhoons from Coningsby, who escorted the aircraft as far as Oxfordshire before getting bored and going home. the loon passenger was arrested by the Met at Heathrow.

i'd be very grateful if anybody could say if the 'normal' flightplan for this route would take in into Irish Airspace, whether this aircraft specifically flew in Irish Airspace, and whether the Typhoons flew in Irish Airspace?

in no way a 'anti-Brit' rant, rather an anti-Irish government rant about our inability to police our own airspace and the embarresment of having to ask a neighbour to do it for us...

thanks.

[cornish-stormrider]

I would suggest beadwindow at this point possibly - I would not think the UK air defense parameters are up for public discussion

It was intercepted - Good, my tax pounds were well spent. Good work Tiffin crews

[BOAC]

Without knowledge of that a/c's particular routing, it is not possible to say. Often that route will arrive into the UK via N Ireland or Scottish airspace, but it is possible that the available routes pushed it further south into the land of the Shamrock. Added complication is that I saw somewhere that it descended to 25k at some point for an unknown reason so that would possbily also have altered its routing. I would not be surprised if one of our ADS-B spotters monitored it, though:)

[Glass Ball]

C-S, i'm not really interested in the UK aspects of the issue, only the Irish (small 'p') political ones.

[Squirrel 41]

G-B - fair question, but C-S is spot on - BEADWINDOW does apply.

Probably one better addressed to the Taoiseach?

S41

PS, if true, BZ to the Tiffie crews... but F3s still do it with more swingwing style! :E

[cornish-stormrider]

Mighty Fightin Flick Knife!
Twin man, twin fan, swing wing arrow of death!
Armageddon delivery vehicle.

Glass - you might not be but some towel wearing fundaMENTAList somewhere would definately be, henceforth the beadwindow call.

Oh and to any offended terrorist look up "like I give a ****" :E

[StbdD]

The answer to the base question asked is; Yes, trans-Atlantic flights are often routed through "Irish Airspace".

Specifics of this incident or QRA procedures in general aren't public information.