aircraft over colchester followed by two fighter jets

[TOWTEAMBASE]

Would do well to get from Colchester to Scotland in 15mins :-)

[Aluminium shuffler]

A fast jet travelling at just below trans-sonic speeds has its noise arrive at full volume very suddenly to an observer, but that is not the same as a sonic boom. It's not impossible that the Typhoons made a boom, but it's pretty unlikely.

[STN Ramp Rat]

Rumour is that the pilot was give their next frequency but did not load it into their radios correctly and then forgot the frequency they had come from .... hence no communications. If that was the case then its all a bit embarrassing for the crew

[fireflybob]

Didn't they have pen and paper, charts - why not call on 121.5 MHz?

[eyeinthesky]

If you were the military decision maker with responsibility for defending the UK's airspace and you were presented with an aircraft approaching the UK either not in communication with ATC and/or with anomalies on its flight plan and it had originated from a country south of the Sahara, what would your prudent decision be?

I understand it's not the first time that this scenario has happened this year. One wonders how such aircraft make it all the way across Spain and France without them taking some form of action...

Unlikely but not unknown for the Typhoons to go supersonic over land, but this is usually on the way to intercept.

[sharksandwich]

Forgive what must be an ignorant question, but what is the fighter escort supposed to do in these situations? I believe they do not carry live missiles and find it hard to believe they would shoot down a civilian aircraft in any case, so what is the purpose of scrambling fighters to escort an aircraft?

[Not Long Now]

Why do you believe the typhoons are unarmed? And why do you find it hard to believe the subject aircraft MAY, as a last resort, be fired upon, presuming who ever is the decision maker for HMG that day has the 'appropriate determination'?

[2Planks]

To wake the pilots up (yes), to alert them that they have a problem (aircraft not fitted with sat phone 121.5 muted etc) enforce the message that UK is serious about security, take video evidence in case of the unthinkable (if a decision is not taken to use lethal force).

[offa]

"A GIV (N990EA) owned by Ernest and Nnenna Azudialu-Obiejesi of Nestoil. The aircraft sports the logo of their charity, the Obi-Jackson Foundation, with the motto ‘Chi na-enye’ (god gives)"
Oil companies are "charities" these days????

[ironbutt57]

They give very generously to themselves

[TEEEJ]

Sharksandwich wrote,

I believe they do not carry live missiles

Yes they are live armed on QRA.

Photos: Eurofighter EF-2000 Typhoon FGR4 Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

ZJ935 / DJ (cn 0115/BS026) Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon callsign '7CK36' turning off with a live warload of ASRAAM and AMRAAM missiles. The QRA pair had just conducted a interception overhead London with a Cobham Falcon simulating a rogue airliner, which was escorted to Stansted, the usual diversion for suspect aircraft. The second practise exercise resulted in the target aircraft being shot down.

[togsdragracing]

The second practise exercise resulted in the target aircraft being shot down


I rather suspect that they mean "A simulation of the target aircraft being shot down"

[MAINJAFAD]

Forgive what must be an ignorant question, but what is the fighter escort supposed to do in these situations?

Intercept the target, identity it, communicate with it and get the aircraft to follow the fighter to a designated landing point plus provide information to the authorities on the ground to make decisions if stronger measures are required . If the target doesn't do what it's told, various warning methods will be done by the fighter to force the target aircraft to do what it is told leading up to shooting the target down if required.

I believe they do not carry live missiles and find it hard to believe they would shoot down a civilian aircraft in any case, so what is the purpose of scrambling fighters to escort an aircraft?

Wrong, the Typhoons on UK QRA are very armed with a full Air Defence fit of live weapons and countermeasures. Would they shot down a civilian aircraft? Yes, if they are ordered to by the controller on the ground (with authority from a very defined Military / political chain of command). This of course would be dependent on what the target aircraft is doing is the way of being a threat to vulnerable areas on the ground as that is what the QRA is actually defending. Don't think that the politicians will not have the balls to make the decision either, as one of the biggest mistakes that a politician can make is inaction in a time of crisis against the advice of the professionals (the basic call is 300+ people dead on the aircraft or 300+ people dead plus X000+ dead on the ground if the aircraft dives into an area with a large population density or major disruption to the UK if some vulnerable installation gets hit in a 9/11 style attack). See this link for an example.

These RAF Typhoons are worth their weight in gold - Telegraph

The link below has some very good photos of a previous QRA escorting mission of a civilian airliner showing a fully bombed up RAF Typhoon (the brown and yellow bands on the missiles show that they have live motors and warheads).

Prestwick Egyptair 777 QRA Typhoon Pics ? FighterControl ? Home to the Military Aviation Enthusiast

[DOVES]

Do not forget that there is a standard procedure (which we all pilots know) to be followed in the event of a two way radio failure.

There is also a procedure to be followed when/if an unknown traffic is detected in order to let the interceptors identify the intruder and then, by visual signals, let him continue, or to force him to follow another track or to land on the indicated airport.

I cant believe that everything has not been executed to the letter.

[jmmilner]

You can go over to ATC Live and listen to what is said when this happens in the U.S. On 2/2/14, a light aircraft entered a TFR set up to cover the POTUS. The following excerpt answers your question as far as the US is concerned.

Pluto 34 (on 121.5): "United States Air Force armed air defense fighter, you are in a restricted airspace, instructed to turn turn left immediately, if you do not follow these instructions, you may be fired upon."

I assume roughly the same occurs in the UK, although I don't know if it is legal to record and/or distribute such transmissions in the UK and/or EU (state secrets, privacy, etc.).

[rightbank]

Rumour is that the pilot was give their next frequency but did not load it into their radios correctly and then forgot the frequency they had come from .... hence no communications. If that was the case then its all a bit embarrassing for the crew

With the type of radios likely to have been fitted the normal SOP is to dial the frequency heard (or believed to have been heard) into the standby and then hit the toggle switch. If no response then hit the toggle switch again and clarify the frequency with the previous sector. No need to write anything down.

[Golf-Mike-Mike]

Perhaps having entered the new frequency (incorrectly) into the standby position then selected it, he got no ATC reply, realised his mistake and entered another (incorrect) frequency, which again went into the (new) standby but would then obliterate the original. Anyway I'm sure lost comms and military interception procedures were followed in the end, nice to see that a QRA works in a timely fashion :-)

[DogSpew]

GMM - what you say is possible and occurs quite often, however a professional pilot would revert to 121.5 and make all possible attempts to contact someone. This happens quite often and results in a return to normal comms.
Also most responsible and professional pilots monitor 121.5 on the second VHF radio set for loss of comms and prevents the launch of fighters to intercept wayward aircraft. Maybe this aircraft has only one VHF radio??

I was flying this night and heard the repeated radio calls from London CTR on 121.5 over a 5 minute period. Obviously no-one on this aircraft was listening for whatever reason.

[bracebrace!]

I think there's more to this than meets the eye. Can anyone see what it did prior to landing at STN? I heard a version where it held for a while near Paris before continuing to the UK and upon landing it was surrounded by armed police with the pilots asking over the radio for an ambulance due to someone onboard having 'serious injuries'.

[JW411]

Going back to rightbank's post #36.

About 30 years ago I was based at JFK on DC-10s. This particular day I was conducting the annual line check of my boss. We were going down to the Caribbean and back for the day. He picked up the tech log and found a deferred maintenance item which stated that the two green pea bulbs on the No 1 VHF set were u/s (one of them lit up to show which frequency was live dependant on the position of the left/right flip switch).

"How bloody ridiculous" said he showing me the entry. "Can you believe the rubbish that people put in the tech log"?

He duly flew us down to the Caribbean and I flew the aircraft back to JFK. So, he was doing the radio. JFK were on Carnasie VOR circling approaches to 13L. Traffic is heavy and frequency changes were equally heavy. At the critical moment, my boss scrambled the frequency that we were actually on (because the little light wasn't working) and so the fun began.

In the meantime, I am flying a Carnasie approach on my own while he has got completely confused. In the end I told him to just call JFK Tower.

THEY WERE VERY PLEASED TO HEAR FROM US!

I don't care what fancy radios that you have but it is always a good idea to have the PNF scribble down the next frequency on the scribble pad that every PNF should have beside his left or right wrist.

God, I'm getting old-fashioned!