Breaking News -- RAF Fighter Forces Passenger Plane to Land near London

[Siam_Sam]

BBC TV has this now. A passenger jet from Pakistan just 10 minutes away from landing in Manchester sent out a signal. An RAF Tornado fighter scrambled and forced the jet to land near London. The plane was isolated. No communication for some time. Now the latest word is two individuals have been arrested and taken away for endangering an aircraft.

Wonder what that’s going to turn out to be. After that recent butchering in the London street, everyone’s jittery.

[Johnny_L.A]

BBC article

An Essex Police spokeswoman added: “An incident has occurred on an aircraft. Police and partners are responding.”

<snip>

A Pakistan International Airlines spokesman Zufiqar Bijarani told CNN: “We have been told there may have been a bomb threat.” But he did not say if he had anything to confirm or deny this.

<snip>

"We don’t know what the incident was: fighter jets are scrambled when there is a bomb threat, when there is a hijack, when the wrong transponder code is used or if an aircraft cannot communicate with the ground. Often the result is when there is an unruly passenger on board.

“What is interesting in this case is that it would appear that the aircraft was only 10 minutes from landing - these are initial reports coming in - when they decided to divert to Stansted. So to actually change a destination 10 minutes from landing would certainly imply that there was some serious incident taking place.”

[Siam_Sam]

The passengers are all off. BBC is talking to some, and they’re saying there was some sort of disturbance on board.

[Siam_Sam]

Details remain sketchy, but it sounds like there was an “increasingly heated argument” between the two perps and the cabin crew, so much so that the panic button was hit. The aviation experts are saying it’s extremely unusual to divert a flight that’s just 10 minutes away from landing.

[Siam_Sam]

So now it’s two Typhoon fighters, and the passenger plane was a half-hour from landing. Update here.

Sounds like it was a couple of Bozos who may have had too many in-flight refreshments.

[Diceman]

@Siam_Sam

So now it’s two Typhoon fighters, and the passenger plane was a half-hour from landing. Update here.

Sounds like it was a couple of Bozos who may have had too many in-flight refreshments.

That’s what normally turns out to be the case with this sort of incident If you’re a mean drunk, you’re well advised to avoid anything harder than water during your flight.

[Baron_Greenback]

@Diceman

That’s what normally turns out to be the case with this sort of incident If you’re a mean drunk, you’re well advised to avoid anything harder than water during your flight.

Yup.

The diversion to Stansted is the usual in this kind of thing as it is the airport that has, eh, a secure area with confusing lines of sight.

[Siam_Sam]

Update here.

“… two passengers ‘got into an altercation with air stewardesses and threatened to blow up the plane’.”

Guess they’ll learn it’s not good to mouth off like that.

[Baron_Greenback]

@Siam_Sam

Guess they’ll learn it’s not good to mouth off like that.

And good luck to them if they ever try to book another airline ticket.

[Siam_Sam]

Or try to enter the UK again. (Assuming they ever make it out of jail.)

[Siam_Sam]

@Siam_Sam

Or try to enter the UK again.

Ah, except I see they are British nationals.

Police are still questioning them. “‘The cabin crew informed us that basically they tried to come into the cockpit a few times and because they had been asked not to do that, they got into a bit of an argument with the crew and made a few threats,’ Umari Nauman, one of the 297 people on board, told Sky News." Weird.

[clairobscur]

I wonder what the cost of flying a tornado is and hope they’ll be billed for that (along with the cost of diverting a passenger airplane).

[JustinC]

No frequent flier mileage for them!