RAF Typhoon's Scrambled to AA Flight

Steyr

Info from Fox News

U.K. Fighter Jets Scrambled After Woman Rushes AA Flight Cockpit

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Two Royal Air Force (RAF) Typhoon jets were scrambled to assist an American Airlines passenger plane shortly before it landed at London's Heathrow airport on Tuesday after a woman attempted to gain access to the flight deck.

The woman, who has yet to be identified, was arrested by London police after the pilot on flight AA078 bound from Dallas-Fort Worth requested urgent assistance.

The plane landed safely at approximately 10:50 a.m. GMT and the arrest was made soon after, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said.

Police said the woman did not pose a terror threat to the Boeing 767-300, which had 161 passengers and 12 crew on board.

Richard Hedges, American Airlines director of corporate communications, Europe & Pacific, said: "American Airlines flight 78 from Dallas/Fort Worth to London Heathrow was met on arrival by police following reports of a disruptive passenger on board the aircraft.

"A female passenger had become distressed during the flight and reportedly attempted to gain access to the flight deck.

"The passenger was calmed by flight attendants but as a precaution a priority approach to London was requested and police were requested to meet the aircraft on arrival."

Steyr

Info from Various Sites says the flight was AAL78 767-300, passenger was reportedly emotionally disturbed and calmed by flight attendants. The captain, as a precaution, requested a priority approach to LHR as a result of the attempted flight deck entry and the lady's mental state but he advised that the situation was under control and no further assistance was required other than for police to meet the aircraft on arrival as is routine for any disruptive passenger.

The two RAF Typhoons broke off over Oxfordshire and returned to their Coningsby base.

Does the below say it basically happened in Irish Airspace??

http://avherald.com/h?article=4280c874&opt=0

Incident: American B763 over Atlantic on Mar 2nd 2010, unruly passenger creates suspicion of unlawful interference


By Simon Hradecky, created Tuesday, Mar 2nd 2010 14:04Z, last updated Tuesday, Mar 2nd 2010 14:05Z

An American Airlines Boeing 767-300, registration N376AN performing flight AA-78 from Dallas Ft. Worth,TX (USA) to London Heathrow,EN (UK) with 161 passengers and 12 crew, was enroute over the Atlantic having passed N54 W30 at FL330, when the crew reported an unruly passenger trying to gain access to the cockpit and requested law enforcement to be present for landing in Heathrow. The airplane descended to FL250 and flew across Ireland and the UK at that level accompanied by two Royal Air Force fighter jets and continued for a safe landing in Heathrow. The passenger was taken into custody by UK police.

American Airlines reported, that a female passenger became distressed during the flight and attempted to gain access to the cockpit. The passenger was calmed by cabin crew, the flight crew requested a priority landing as a precaution. The airplane was met by police upon arrival.

concussion

Damn Brits, invadin' our airspace!

I wonder was there malicious intent or did she just freak out for whatever reason.

Morpheus

so irish defence forces must've given the brits permission as we have no quick launch cap capability??

Steyr

concussion wrote: »

Damn Brits, invadin' our airspace!

I wonder was there malicious intent or did she just freak out for whatever reason.

It may have been UK Airspace but if it was Irish its a fine example of us not being able to do a damn thing about it.

Donny5

Morphéus wrote: »

so irish defence forces must've given the brits permission as we have no quick launch cap capability??

No CAP at all.

vulcan57

Steyr wrote: »

It may have been UK Airspace but if it was Irish its a fine example of us not being able to do a damn thing about it.

Even if the plane was intercepted in UK air space the incident must have started well before then, so most likely, over or before Irish airspace. Like you say, Steyr, once again it highlights how inadequate the Air Corps equipped as an air defence force. Thank god the RAF are there if needed.

concussion

They're not just inadequately equipped for AD; they're not equipped at all and that's a conscious political stance which has been upheld for decades.

OS119

from W30N54 - waaay out in the North East Atlantic - and according to my half cut maths, 600 miles west of County Mayo - to Heathrow would indicate that the aircraft in question almost certainly would have flown over the RoI.

assuming that it did - and it would of had to make a course deviation not to - its perhaps an indicator of quite how impotent the RoI is in this area. Irish ATC would of had more than a hours notice of this event, and yet had no ability to have any impact whatsoever on the situation...

ScouseMouse

OS119 wrote: »

from W30N54 - waaay out in the North East Atlantic - and according to my half cut maths, 600 miles west of County Mayo - to Heathrow would indicate that the aircraft in question almost certainly would have flown over the RoI.

assuming that it did - and it would of had to make a course deviation not to - its perhaps an indicator of quite how impotent the RoI is in this area. Irish ATC would of had more than a hours notice of this event, and yet had no ability to have any impact whatsoever on the situation...

Impotent? What impact would you want them to have? To make them avoid irish airspace by rerouting and maybe endanger the innocent passengers?

Surely the priority would be to get it onto the ground as soon as possible. If the situation did become unstable it could crash in Ireland. I think its more a case of co-operation.

Donny5

OS119 wrote: »

from W30N54 - waaay out in the North East Atlantic - and according to my half cut maths, 600 miles west of County Mayo

Even farther than that, it's about 1.3Mm from the West Coast, or about 808 miles.

OS119

superscouse wrote: »

Impotent? What impact would you want them to have? To make them avoid irish airspace by rerouting and maybe endanger the innocent passengers?

Surely the priority would be to get it onto the ground as soon as possible. If the situation did become unstable it could crash in Ireland. I think its more a case of co-operation.

and had the woman got into the cockpit and decided not to listen to the nice man on the radio asking her politely to fcuk off?

getting the aircraft and pax 'on the ground as quickly as possible' is only a good idea if the person doing the flying wants it to land on a big grey long thing with white lines down the middle and lots of fire engines close by - however, should they have other ideas (as both the mad and the bad often do) 'getting it on the ground as quickly as possible' might not be sch a clever idea...

Morpheus

Just like I said in the aviation forum, why was this NOT reported by Irish media? dont they care that a possible terrorist situation occured in Irish airspace? Seems more like a cover up of just how defence-less our headless department of (no) defence was in this situation.

Ah sure let the uk handle it - typical attitude from a country filled with wastrels happy to sit in pubs venting about 800 yrs of oppression etc nonetheless happy to remain toothless while the "old empire" looks after our airspace!!!

OS119

Morphéus wrote: »

Just like I said in the aviation forum, why was this NOT reported by Irish media? dont they care that a possible terrorist situation occured in Irish airspace? Seems more like a cover up of just how defence-less our headless department of (no) defence was in this situation.

loathe as i am to say it - ring Joe this afternoon.

the Irish political class won't consider defence to be an important issue - and will continue to treat it as a way of paying off their political supporters - unless the public start getting sweaty with them over it. and they won't get sweaty over it unless they know about it - and RTE/FF ain't going to go out of their way to tell them.

concussion

Yeah...wow...finally an issue that's would be worth calling Joe Duffy for. I think I need to sit down OS.

Micky Dolenz

"Two Royal Air Force (RAF) Typhoon jets were scrambled to assist an American Airlines passenger plane shortly before it landed at London's Heathrow airport on Tuesday after a woman attempted to gain access to the flight deck."

How exactly can they assist?

Donny5

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

"Two Royal Air Force (RAF) Typhoon jets were scrambled to assist an American Airlines passenger plane shortly before it landed at London's Heathrow airport on Tuesday after a woman attempted to gain access to the flight deck."

How exactly can they assist?

They can ensure the flight deck is still in the control of the pilots and, if it's not, they can assist it's rapid descent into unpopulated terrain.

Micky Dolenz

Donny5 wrote: »

They can ensure the flight deck is still in the control of the pilots and, if it's not, they can assist it's rapid descent into unpopulated terrain.

As in, shoot it down? unlikely I would think.

Donny5

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

As in, shoot it down? unlikely I would think.

They would if it was hi-jacked and not over a city. At least, following the 11/09/01 attacks, it is much less likely that any Western nation would allow coerced pilots to fly jet aircraft into populated areas.

Steyr

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

As in, shoot it down? unlikely I would think.

That is their job.

OS119

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

As in, shoot it down? unlikely I would think.

its certainly towards the bottom end of a list of attractive options, but compared to having the same aircraft plough into a major shopping/residential/business district, dive onto a nuclear weapons storage site or perhaps, at its worst, hit whitehall while some other nasty occurrence (war for instance) was in play that whitehall needed to be in control of, then having the RAF shootdown an errant passenger jet - ideally onto farm/empty land - isn't quite at the bottom.

the Air Traffic Control, RAF and, as importantly, the government, have set procedures and a chain of command for such eventualities. its become - certainly since 9/11 - part of the job. can't shoot down a passenger jet that while full of innocents may theaten the security of the UK? don't be fighter pilot. can't order/authorise such a shootdown? don't be a cabinet level minister...

Delancey

The incident just underlines how impotent ' Strategic Air Command ' at Baldonnell is , if they are not equipped to defend our airspace then the question should be asked if we need them at all.

Steyr

delancey42 wrote: »

The incident just underlines how impotent ' Strategic Air Command ' at Baldonnell is.

I dont believe that even exists at Baldonnel anyway. Thats American SAC your thinking of.

Donny5

Steyr wrote: »

I dont believe that even exists at Baldonnel anyway. Thats American SAC your thinking of.

They might not have a Cheyenne Mountain, but they do have a damn nice dining hall.

rugbyman

I dont know how expert the posters on here are, a lot of air buffs know their stuff, but I thinks its bloody brilliant that the RAF ,or thr French or Germans for that matter can mobilise fighters within minutes for an emergency. the guys who fly them and the back up staff probably love it, a sort of real life practice run, and we know that in the event of something nasty happening, there are teams of guys ready to have a go.

For years RAF sea kings rescued dozens off the west of Ireland, an and occasional picture of them re fuelling here.

Rugbyman

Delancey

Steyr wrote: »

I dont believe that even exists at Baldonnel anyway. Thats American SAC your thinking of.

Sorry Steyr that was my attempt at a joke . On a serious note BTW does S.A.C. still exist or was it disbanded at the end of the Cold War ?

Steyr

delancey42 wrote: »

Sorry Steyr that was my attempt at a joke . On a serious note BTW does S.A.C. still exist or was it disbanded at the end of the Cold War ?

SAC finished in 1992.

the ostrich

Morphéus wrote: »

Just like I said in the aviation forum, why was this NOT reported by Irish media? dont they care that a possible terrorist situation occured in Irish airspace? Seems more like a cover up of just how defence-less our headless department of (no) defence was in this situation.

Ah sure let the uk handle it - typical attitude from a country filled with wastrels happy to sit in pubs venting about 800 yrs of oppression etc nonetheless happy to remain toothless while the "old empire" looks after our airspace!!!

The Irish Defence forces dont have the capacity to respond to anything like this, a few (non fighter) planes and a frigate or two are kept to monitor customs traffic, etc.
This has always been the case. It is very convenient (and cost effective) for Ireland to keep it this way, allowing the UK to monitor all activity over these Isles.