Sonic boom heard over southern England as RAF intercepts private jet
A sonic boom was heard over southern England after two RAF fighter jets scrambled to intercept a private jet.
Two Typhoon jets from RAF Coningsby were dispatched to make the intercept over Cambridgeshire, News.Az reports, citing The Telegraph.
Residents of southern Essex posted on social media that they heard sonic booms as the fighters passed overheard from the Lincolnshire air base, indicating they broke the speed of sound.
An MoD source said the emergency interception was ordered after the business jet suffered a communications failure.
The jets intercepted a Bombardier Global Express registered T7-SGH, indicating its state of registry is San Marino, a landlocked small country in Italy.
The jet was escorted to land at Stansted, where it taxied to a remote stand on the northern side of the airport away from the main passenger terminals.
Scheduled airline flights resumed takeoffs and landings as normal.
An RAF spokesman confirmed that RAF Quick Reaction Alert aircraft were launched this morning, but refused to offer further details “because this is an ongoing mission”.
Stansted Airport, the Department for Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority have all been contacted for comment.
While the security threat posed by the business jet is not yet known, the Emir of Dubai’s personal Boeing 747 – flying under the callsign Dubai 1 – has just landed at Stansted, but it is not believed the emir himself is aboard the jet.
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