This was a MLG to BHX flight so it would have been one of the brand new -800s. The -300s that will be left next year are all younger than the oldest -800s out there. It isn't aircraft age that was the problem. The French controllers I had that day had quite thick accents to be fair. my F/O struggled to get the frequencies right...

What an awesome idea. It makes you wonder why nobody has thought of that already...

How do we know this was a loss of comms incident? Has this been confirmed?

hec7or.
Not Bloodhound missiles I'm afraid. They were done away with in the early 90's.
All we have left are Typhoons.

I Norway we lost a Widerø Twin Otter in the late 70s or early 80s due to a Harrier.
The problem was it happened way east of the line Norway had drawn for NATO aircraft as a buffer before you hit the Soviet border.
Was all blamed on the Otter crew. Many years later it turned out the Harrier was using it as target and bumped into it.
Same as happened to Gargarin except the Harrier made contact and was damaged.

Intercept of airliners of any kind for training is not allowed to my knowledge anymore.
Why, ask the US Navy P3 that was intercepted and had to land in Hainan some time ago.

Anyway, it was a PLOC , it looks like?

Yes, no doubt but, nevertheless, in the UK a request was made to embellish and, mindful of the welfare of my aircraft and passengers, I would refuse.
That decision was entirely at the civil aircraft commander's discretion.

My view was: If you want a target then get a Dominie up! ;)

Or maybe the J2 ac was on the right frequency and French ATC had forgot to tell them to change and then wonder why they have lost them. Happened before and will happen again, eg when French ATC moved from overnight manning to full daytime manning and one slipped through the net.

Doubt it. The next sector expecting the aircraft on their frequency would check with the previous to remind them. If no contact they would then try to contact the aircraft on 121.5

Well that is a fairly extravagant assertion. Three separate Norwegian investigations all concluded it was structural break-up - there was no blame attached to the crew.

The allegations that it was caused by a Harrier intercept also have no evidence.

Moreover, the Harrier pilots who would have been flying on that exercise will now all be happily collecting their pensions so have nothing to lose - do you really believe that they would not come forward and admit it if they had really accidentally killed some fellow aviators of a very friendly allied country like Norway?

I don't understand though why they made themselves so visible to pax, and apparently not to pilots.

The one time I have been "verified" was over the Med by a Rafale. We only spotted him because we happened to turn on one of our rear-view cameras. We could not see him from normal line of sight from cockpit.

Never let the truth get in the way of a good conspiracy theory.

PPRuNe: Possible RAF Harrier MidAir Collision Meham, Norway 1982

....meanwhile a KC-135FR
wonders where his trade has got to ?

Stab trim
 

You are right.
I am wrong. There is no evidence that a Harrier had anything to do with this.

The first report from 1984 did indicate that it was the captain fault.

The second report stated it likely was mechanical failure in severe turbulence.

AND the Parliamentary Comission in 2006 stated no evidence of any Harrier involved.
My apologies to our fellow British soldiers.

This thread is funny. A british airliner get intercepted by a french fighter jet, and it is the fault of either the french air force or the french ATC, but surely not the british crew...

@fab777 british crew at fault! how dare you.....how bloody dare you! :}

Council Van, no need to feel molested. A few facts plus a suggestion on improving their operation does not equal an ego.

Superpilot don't take it personal. Unfortunately there are a few in Jet2 who suffer small airline syndrome and who struggle to deal with any kind of criticism aimed at jet2. For them the airline is the best thing since sliced bread, they are the product of the continuous North Korean style jet2 management propaganda.

I wholeheartedly agree with you; The T9-T16 procedures within Jet2 are amateurish to say the least.

2Planks:
HT:
2Planks has probably the closest guess out of all the responses here, it does happen, and enough to be considered regularly.
737 also said that Brest tried calling said aircraft for 20 minutes, further indication they were at least not on the expected frequency (if they were on a frequency), and RVF750 said that there were some accents hard to understand that their FO didn't quite understand. It is possible for the aircraft to have dialled in a wrong frequency, checked in as normal, and for the ATC unit to acknowledge without realising that the aircraft should not be on their frequency. Again, it is something that happens and has caused this situation in the past.

Thank you zonoma. As ex ATC (for 45 years) I consider my doubts are just as valid. I note that you exclude the possibility of the aircraft taking the wrong call for a frequency change. That also happens quite frequently. As for your suggestion that this would indicate that you have no knowledge of what functions an ATCO has to perform upon receiving an initial call on his sector. We are not talking procedural control over certain parts of Africa here!