Actions on Interception
 

I was reading the London 2012 Airspace "Actions on Interception" leaflet yesterday; it documents the non-standard interception procedures to be used during the Olympics.

I live under the northern part of the LTMA, between Luton and Stansted and today I heard what sounded like two fighters manoevering in or above the cloud for a while around lunchtime.

It set me wondering. The interception procedures are designed for visual meteorological. conditions. How will they handle unidentified traffic that is in the sort of IMC we have had for the last few weeks? Visual interception and aircraft identification may not be possible. Will they go straight to the part of the document that states that they may use lethal force?

That is a very interesting question, and obviously nobody in the know is going to be talking about it :)

There will be rules drawn up for this and my guess is that any non-radio traffic going past a specific stage or showing specific behaviour will have to be shot down unidentified.

It's not as if the UK is always CAVOK :)

At a slight tangent, not being specific to LTMA 2012, what are peoples thoughts on selecting 7700 if they were to be intercepted. It is as far as I am aware the correct procedure to follow, but I am unaware of anyone who has done it or would do it, they would rather avoid it and persist in trying to get in touch with SOMEONE, albeit 121.5 or some nearby local field if outside the coverage of a radar controller. (Low-ish level Irish sea/Scotland springs to mind).

I suspect everyone both sufficiently deranged and sufficiently skilled to fly into solid IMC at low altitude over a big city in radio silence mode are recruited by the air force before they get a chance to become terrorists.

Not necessarily. They may wear glasses.

Lol :D :D.

Or have too many cavities in their teeth. :mad:

What's the stalling speed of a Typhoon? I like the notion of a Typhoon appearing on the left wingtip of C152 doing 85kts........

I guess the much vaunted 'rocking of wings' will be the Typhoon desperately trying to remain in the air at high alpha and on stall speed.

Oh . but they've got helicopters to do the lethal force bit on Cessnas....

Not being a pilot I've no idea what the typhoon stalling speed is, but have witnessed one circuit bashing with 3 tutor ac with no dramas. (Really noisy though)

Interesting question re: an intercept when IMC prevail. Had a look at the leaflet and otherwise it is pretty clear, however my concern is that the use of non-standard procedures is not a help to anyone. I'd regard an intercept as a rather high-stress situation, more so if one has inadvertantly wandered into the zone by accident as result of becoming "temporarily unaware of position". Under those circumstances it is not a good idea to have non-standard procedures and be trying to remember/follow them, all whilst having to deal with Tiffies/Apaches suddenly racing up alongside you and trying to figure out where you are and what to do.

I understand that national security is a primary concern, however from the pilot's perspective the swiss cheese effect is impossible to ignore, and that things might end up being made worse by enforcement of non-standard, well-known procedure.

I sincerely hope it doesn't happen to anyone, however the potential's all too great for someone inexperienced to have a bad day, make a mistake and end up having to deal with an interception, or worse consequences; I note the specific mention of "Use Of Lethal Force". Hmm. So if a microlight gets lost and happens to be heading for Olympic Village it may very well end up with an AIM9 or a Rapier up the chuff. Is one being very slightly too silly/cynical to query at whether this is a mite extreme, and further to the point when did the UK suddenly decide to adopt Cold War-era Soviet defence tactics?

Smithy

Your assumption of a full war-footing reaction to a lost microlight is what is silly. You can expect a very graduated response starting with visual identification of the bogey, then encouragement to turn away. It would take a very determined lost PPL to continue boreing on towards the park with an armed helicopter twenty yards from the cockpit and possibly a warning shot across the nose. The aircraft would have to demonstrate a credible and immediate threat to get the kill and for anything eminating from a flying club would most likely be investigated by a support helo with a heavy machine gun not a missile armed Typhoon. I don't think it's going to be like Guy Fawkes' night, despite what the more hysterical believe.

The main problem with non-standard intercept procedures is pilots of non-UK based aircraft not recognising / understanding them.

Despite all the published precautions, they would not necessarily be certain of stopping a determined terrorist with suitable aviation training and skills, by using helicopters or fighter jets. One can only hope they can plug the gap in the middle, if (God forbid) needed.

Won't (can't) happen.

Yes but the Q was what about IMC.

The interception procedures date back to c. post-WW2 and are intended for jets which spend 99% of their time in VMC, and if not identified they are (Cold War era etc) a fair game for shooting down and everybody accepts that.

abgd,

Why not?

Very big gun !
 

For those of you who think this is all a bit of a joke I can assure you that the RAF are taking this all very seriously.

Any light aircraft who enters the zone without clearance can expect to be met by a Puma, you can expect the crewman at the door to show you a large board with instructions.

If you fail to comply with these instructions you are likely to find yourself on the business end of a very big gun. One round from this is likely to stop you Lycoming leaving you to find a large open space to land on.

I would recomend Wormwood Scrubs, it will be convenient for the prison!

Sorry, I was being a bit cryptic there. If you flew a helicopter that close to a microlight the turbulence would knock it out of the sky - they're not a good mix and the combination has killed a few hang-glider pilots over the years.

I don't know whether you could safely get a helicopter within hailing range of a microlight or paramotor.

Is anyone taking this as a joke? That's not the impression I get.

Just a thought....wouldn't it be a bit silly to shoot down a rogue airliner over London?!

Significantly less silly than allowing it to hit its target.