NORDO over England 04/03/2023, N362PH
 

Well done to the 2 Typhoons intercepting N362PH over England today.

And all ATC involved on Guard and behind the scenes.

It can’t have been easy for the Typhoon pilot to have uttered those grave words. It was far from a training exercise at that point.

Incredible to listen to it all unfold.

Related to this perhaps
 

"Plane spotters suggested the sound may have come from an RAF Typhoon fighter jet scrambling to intercept another aircraft in distress."
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...rd-northampton

Edit: Obviously related now, but at first the Grauniad article was about unexplained loud bangs over Leics.

​​​​​​​Which were?

Comms failure, presumably - squawking 7600.

Reportedly enroute Iceland to Southend for maintenance, escorted into Stansted (though FR24 reckons it went to North Weald).

I believe it's something like "If you do not comply I am instructed by His Majesty's Government to shoot you down".

N362PH, this is RIGID11. I am instructed by His Majesty’s Government of The United Kingdom to warn you that if you do not respond to my orders immediately, you will be shot down.

Quote surprisingly, it appeared he didn’t squawk 7600. London CTL on Guard were asking him blind to either respond on Guard, contact 2 London frequencies or squawk ident. So sounds like they never set 7600.


Once 2-way comms were established, N362PH said they lost their 833kHz ability and could only set .1, .2, .3, etc.

Typhoon released flares too to try catch their attention.

Flight tracking info.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....ecc3fda23.jpeg

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....06a114551.jpeg
Plane Spotter Photo Date / location unknown.

He did on Mode S - continuously for at least 30 minutes.

Ok, cheers, Dave.

Was that the 30min period before landing? It’d have been 30mins from getting 2-way comms between himself and the Typhoons and landing into STN.

Yes. He was squawking 3470 at FL250 until just north of Birmingham when he changed to 7600 at 12:03z, and maintained the 7600 squawk until landing at Stansted at 12:47z (all according to the replay function on ADSB Exchange).

Most reassuring to know that they are looking after us.
Thank you.

JOKE Perhaps they should also broadcast a phone number. 1-800-YOU-IDIOT. JOKE OVER
Laugh if you will…we were once asked by freshly minted MOT inspector as to lost comms procedures after a long day of his enthusiastic inspecting…”My what a curious fellow he was!” El Capitan replied with the correct procedures but also pointed to 2x VHF 1x HF 1x FM on the panel and additionally 4x cell phone plus 2x Portable Sat phones. It was early cell phone daze when you could not yet program numbers into the phones but we had a phone number list for ever FSS, Twr, Center, FBO, Air Ambulance dispatch, RCAF SAR plus police and fire service, hospital ect. ect. in our operational area.
Unfazed he asked about light signals…only to be confronted by being shown the light signals posted on the back of our clipboard, which I was afraid “glorious Leader” was about to hit him with. He finally admitted defeat and retreated to the operator next door to harass them for a day or two. They reported a similar experience with the comment that he was most upset they didn’t have a list of important /useful phone numbers in the aircraft.

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...

Don’t forget, the RAF are there to help you when things get difficult!

If the target aircraft doesn't have comms how does it respond to the Fighter?

I believe that is referred to as "Catch 22".

By following the ICAO standard interception signals and acknowledgements.

Exactly! As described in detail in the operations manual and route guides like Jeppesen. It’s not exactly an unforeseen situation.