Fighter Jets Escort Plane into Stansted Airport
Amanda Cyr July 24, 2014
Flights in and out of the London Stansted Airport (STN) were suspended briefly Wednesday afternoon when air traffic control lost contact with an incoming Gulfstream IV jet. Two RAF fighter jets were deployed “on a precautionary basis,” according to an Essex Police spokesman. The pair of jets circled the area until the private, American-registered N990EA plane landed and taxied off the runway.
Without going into detail, the Essex Police spokesman confirmed there had been “an incident.”
An airport spokesman said the runways were closed for 15 minutes, resulting in the diversion of scheduled Ryanair FR 1223. The passenger plane, which was traveling from Spain’s Alicante Airport (ALC), was diverted to Luton Airport (LTN).
Residents took to Twitter shortly before the private plane landed, claiming to have heard an “explosion” near Little Hadham, a village eight miles east of STN, and a “loud bang” over Bishop’s Stortford, four miles to the west of STN. The “loud bang,” which locals claim rattled windows in the area, is believed to have been a sonic boom.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) claims no sonic boom occurred.
Many locals disagreed, including pilot John Ward, who tweeted “Contrary to MoD reports… We did get a sonic boom this evening. Stansted area.”
Last June, during a similar incident, a Typhoon jet launched from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire and broke the sound barrier on its way to London Heathrow Airport (LHR). The jet went supersonic while traveling over Barkway, resulting in hundreds of calls to emergency service. Residents of Essex, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire reported slammed doors, moving ground, shattered windows and shaking houses.
[Photo: iStock]
