Anyone hear the bang??

[sonnetpete]

I find this quite intriguing. Make sure you read the whole story :

_http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-17697328

I'm quite used to hearing sonic booms here as it's a designated low fly area and the jets concerned fly out of a base in Brittany. I'm sure a lot of concerned people who rang up are satisfied with the explanation reported by the BBC. But....

Why scramble a Typhoon and sanction it to break the sound barrier to aid a 'small civilian helicopter' transmitting an emergency signal? Besides which, what practical help could the Typhoon be? Now suppose the helicopter is carrying 'important' people and the pilot (who may or may not be one of the important people) unwittingly sends a panic signal (terrorism alert perhaps)? I think that might invoke scrambling a Typhoon but to do that for an ordinary civilian helicopter in trouble surely not.

Like I've said, intriguing......

 

[pgh13]

Same here. I suppose they could have converted it to small pieces before it did any real damage. We heard it (near Leamington Spa). Having checked the boiler hadn't blown up etc., I thought it was a sonic boom (having grown up in Blackpool when they used to fly Lightnings super sonic over the Irish Sea)

 

[aceb]

There's definitely more to this than is being reported 'A spokesman said the frequency was only used when an aircraft was in particular trouble, such as a hijacking.' A regular civilian aircraft would use 121.5 for any emergency, there's no special hijacking frequency. If an epirb is accidentally triggered round here they might put up one of the MCA helos to go take a listen but I've never heard of a mil aircraft being scrambled for one let alone given permission to go supersonic over or near land. Wouldn't surprise me if it was a security exercise for the Olympics, there's bound to be some rapid response contingency for shooting down something they don't like.

 

[sonnetpete]

Wouldn't surprise me if it was a security exercise for the Olympics, there's bound to be some rapid response contingency for shooting down something they don't like.

That actually sounds very plausible......I wonder where the 'civilian helicopter' was located when the alert went off?....somewhere off the coast?

 

[pgh13]

All the reports say around Bath. I suppose that's close-ish to a royal residence and also GCxx

 

[Channel Hopper]

Why scramble a Typhoon and sanction it to break the sound barrier to aid a 'small civilian helicopter' transmitting an emergency signal? Besides which, what practical help could the Typhoon be?

I believe the Typhoon has the capability to stand on its tail and hover for a few moments, plus with it's interception capability it would have got to the location in record time. But as you say, intriguing.

 

[sonnetpete]

All the reports say around Bath. I suppose that's close-ish to a royal residence and also GCxx

Yes, I guess it is. I wonder whose helicopters are fitted with a 'help, I'm being hijacked' button?

 

[Channel Hopper]

I believe the Typhoon has the capability to stand on its tail and hover for a few moments, plus with it's interception capability it would have got to the location in record time. But as you say, intriguing.

Confirmed 1.30 ish

[video=youtube;kvXOeEi11dA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvXOeEi11dA&feature=related[/video]

If they ever get round to fitting the EJ230 engines (thrust vector jobbies - the naval Typhoon perhaps) it will cook breakfast as well.

 

[sonnetpete]

A bit OT, but after 9/11 there was naturally a big increase in jet training and supersonic flights over us. The nuclear power stations on the Cherbourg peninsula and further along towards Calais were considered as possibly 'at risk' from attack. I heard somewhere that once scrambled the French jets could reach the Cherbourg coast in five minutes.

 

[norfolknhope]

There's definitely more to this than is being reported 'A spokesman said the frequency was only used when an aircraft was in particular trouble, such as a hijacking.' A regular civilian aircraft would use 121.5 for any emergency, there's no special hijacking frequency. If an epirb is accidentally triggered round here they might put up one of the MCA helos to go take a listen but I've never heard of a mil aircraft being scrambled for one let alone given permission to go supersonic over or near land. Wouldn't surprise me if it was a security exercise for the Olympics, there's bound to be some rapid response contingency for shooting down something they don't like.

They could have however inadvertently put 7500 into the transponder which is the "Squawk" code for a Hijacking

 

[Channel Hopper]

They could have however inadvertently put 7500 into the transponder which is the "Squawk" code for a Hijacking

Maybe, but realistically, what damage could something the size of a helicopter do ?