French Mirage Intercept GO B737 !

[JB007]

Anyone got any news on this ?

Go flight out of AGP bound for STN or BRS was intercepted by a French Air Force Mirage possibly due to lost radio contact ? and suspected hi-jack ?

Apparantly a pax got it all on cam-corder...
Obviously false alarm but good to see the French taking it seriously.

[ 22 October 2001: Message edited by: JB007 ]

[Numpo-Nigit]

Aircraft was en-route to EGSS and went "quiet" whilst on a Madrid frequency. Apparently the crew only realised "something was wrong" somewhere over Normandie when they noticed the Mirage alongside. That convinced them to check in with Brest p.d.q. The Mirage kept them company until the French UIR boundary at FAWBO before peeling off and returning south.

Red faces and brown trousers???

Remember - it's good to talk !!!

[moggie]

FAF used to intercept me on VC10s on a regular basis - never bothered to inform us in advance so the first thing you see is a delta "up close and personal". However, since when was following the rules ever a requirement in France?

[Busta]

Don't knock it if you haven't tried it.

Plus ca change etc.

[Devils Advocate]

To be fair, there is a portion of Spanish / French airspace in that area which is very bad for VHF comms, i.e. it shouldn't be, but it is ?!

Accordingly, it is perfectly feasible that an airliner might suffer a temporary loss of 5-by-5 comms with the previous centre, and thus find themselves somewhat surprised to not be in comms with the next FIR, and thus with a fighter escort in tow.

That said, it would probably be fair to say that (unfortunately) many pilots no longer routinely monitor 121.5 on box two and / or indeed have the relevant Jepp en-route chart to hand (upon which 'en-route' frequencies are readily accessible)

Ps. Hindsight, as they say, is a wonderful thing !

[Mister Geezer]

Similar thing happened to a Onur Air MD-88 from Bodrum to Edinburgh last week on October 15. Apparently the crew did not call up on the R/T for some time when being handed over to the Austrians, who promptly took action and dispatched aircraft to intercept the MD-88.

The BBC link is here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/...00/1602077.stm

MG

[what_the_hell_was_that?]

If it's true, I wouldn't call a total lack of RT transmissions from Madrid to the Normandy coast a temporary loss of 5-by-5 comms , I'd call it a huge f*ck up.

[maxrpm]

Happend also three weeks ago to a AIR BERLIN 737 over Austria

[BOAC]

I'd agree with 'wthwt'!

Sadly Aerad at least no longer publish so many of the ATC sector frequencies on the charts as they did.

For those 'newcomers' who have not yet experienced loss of ATC comms, the Aerad supplement gives FIS frequencies on which you can call, in this case Brest Control FIS south, and as time went on...........Brest Control FIS north....................

Did a couple of those intecepts myself in the 'old' days, and it was great watching the reaction to suddenly seeing a fighter in close formation!

[ 23 October 2001: Message edited by: BOAC ]

[southern softy]

for those "newcomers"

Just listen out. poor show to those involved.

[Nightstop]

Hey BOAC, did you fly Lightnings out of Binbrook in the 80's? I had one of those intercept my innocent little F27 without warning over the North Sea. Scared the sh*t out of us! Turned out to be the WingCo on a weather sortie, prat!

[BEagle]

Reminds me of the times we used to tap the 'Norwich Flyer' when I was on F4s! Setting up for medium level PIs in the usual area, the AirUK track in to Norwich was often similar to the target ac's track. It wasn't that easy to discern the difference on radar although you would have expected the navigator to have NB'd the target velocity being rather less than that of another F4! We always broke off when we became visual though - never joined close formation.
Quite a few ac off-airways used to get intercepted over the North Sea back then - many without ever having known about it!

Came back from Scotland after an exercise debrief once in the AirUK F27 via Leeds-Bradford (couldn't get in due to fog) and East Midlands (to offload the Leeds pax), then on to Norwich. Getting intercepted on the way by our own sqn F4s!!

[BOAC]

Nightstop - way after my time and never a 'wingco'!

[Nightstop]

Ahh, those were the days! NWI-LBA/HUY-EDI-ABZ, no autopilot, no APU..but we did get hot brekkies. (glad to see Eastern are still serving those nice folk from the East coast).
We had no problem with the pre arranged practice intercepts, it was when they sneeked up on us without warning we got a bit worried.
BTW BOAC the last word in my post above was NOT directed at you.

[BOAC]

Thanks Nightstop - thought I'd avoid it anyway!
PS LOVE the Smilie!