Gulfstream escorted
 

Any info on a Gulfstream intercepted over France then escorted into British airspace by QRA? possible loss of comms but treated as suspected hijacking.

VVIP service
 

Please tell more...

I always ask my pax to look out of the window, for the escorts, but not yet had the pleasure.

Heard the start on guard. French Air Force intercepted it, think it was heading for Luton, not sure what started it but asked for flight plan number, once happy, released it to London but all southbound departures from LHR halted, re-started then stopped again so don't know what happened in the end.

What time was this yesterday?

About 01.30 Zulu this morning

Were there many departures from LHR affected at 02:00?

More like 2230. Yes, bit of a queue.

N223GA, northbound DBBB to EGGW. Lost comms for a while, eventually had a chat with his 'escort' and continued to destination after being held at the FIR boundary with the UK.

Interesting who it belongs to........

Jack Niklaus... if my Googling is correct.

Are you referring to the famous Golfer, Jack Nicklaus?

Was in the area at the time working maastricht then london. The fighter was on their right wing for a good 10 mins (call sign French fighter). Sounded almost as if they may have nodded off... Started around 23:10.

Lesson in remaining in contact with guard most definitely. They were handed over to a London freq I didn't recognise at around 23:35 after being assigned a heading away from the uk.

Horrible to listen to, was thinking of the Helios crash for about 5 mins before they started to respond.

Heard it all on 121.500 too. Sounded to me like they had dozed off - the fighter called them repeatedly for a good 10min before he eventually got an answer, all the while flying formation off their right wing. When they did answer, the (American-sounding) crew didn't sound too proud... But the Mirage (or Rafale) pilot was 100% professional throughout. Apparently, Brest ATC could not contact the Gulfstream, so the QRA must have been scrambled from nearby Lorient. According to the interceptor pilot, N223GA was heading North at FL400 at this point.

Cheers :cool:

Surprised they weren't shouting "on guard" rather than listening to what was going on!

These days like as not the cockpit windows were covered with newspapers to "keep the sun out..."

Bit hard to see the intercepting a/c when the sports section is clipped to the pillars.

Wouldn't have happened in the old days. :rolleyes:

Donno what the procedures are, but I bet if the fighter had turned his mode 3c back on it would have have given the crew a bit of a startle if they were nodded off!

I got intercepted several times by the Russians (MIG19s) in the Berlin Corridors in the 1960s and they always came up on the starboard side.

Maybe it depends on which side of the road you drive on at home!

Should`ve just pulled in front,lit the burners,then hit the brakes...

Nah. Just drop below, light burner, and accelerate in front, then high g pullup and thump them good.:}

Come to think of it, we used to put a special squawk on the box which meant that we were happy to be intercepted. The 6th Fleet also used to come up the right side.

I can well remember standing up in the bay windows (it was a Belfast) and offering the two bone domes in an F-4 Phantom a cigarette and a Coca Cola.

At the time this was happening I was lnformed that our own QRA were launched to intercept with a possible escort to Stansted. So does anybody know for certain if we did intercept or not?