Originally Posted by dead_pan (Post 10893325)

There wasn't that much drama TBH. When it became apparent they'd have to return to Fairford the original plan was burn fuel by orbiting over the North Sea, then the Brize area, then finally over Gloucester. The frame which had the hatch problem was I believe the same one which had a pressurization issue earlier in the day. The crew did discuss with bomber ops about whether to declare an emergency but presumably decided between them to wait until they were within weight limits before doing so.

I believe the local press got wind of the fact two Buffs were orbiting for nigh on two hours over Gloucs, found out about the hatch issue and put 2 and 2 together to get 11. The Daily Fail then got hold of the story...

What was more interesting was the comms between the two crews as they mused whether they should land, refuel and change cabs in order to get back stateside, as was their original plan. They clearly weren't that enamoured about having to return to Fairford.

Originally Posted by sandiego89 (Post 10893358)

That’s saying something if they would rather be at Minot rather than Fairford! :}

Originally Posted by airsound (Post 10893088)

. How often do you find one, and sometimes two, B52s in a roughly 13nm orbit, at 10,000ft-ish over rural Gloucestershire - for about 1 hour and 20 minutes? Don't you think it would be interesting to hear what they were doing - particularly perhaps for the people they were overflying?

Originally Posted by BirdmanBerry (Post 10893465)

Gloucestershire Live will pick up any non story these days, usually with clickbait titles like "You'll never believe why these American bombers were circling for hours" or some other tripe.