News

Typhoon Eurofighters were scrambled on Monday (22 March) to approach an airliner over Manston airfield in Thanet in response to suspected attempts to hijack the plane.

The Eurofighter Typhoons have been scrambled twice this month in response to warnings of suspected attempts to hijack American airliners reports the Guardian.

Defence sources have revealed Typhoons took off from the quick reaction alert base at Coningsby in Lincolnshire after the warnings, including one above Manston Airport.

Procedures which could ultimately destroy the aircraft, to avoid mass casualties were put in place. That decision would be taken "at the highest levels of government", officials say.

According to the report in the Guardian, British air traffic control picked up the words "hostage" and "ransom" from a United Airlines plane bound for Frankfurt in Germany. The plane suddenly dropped height south of Reading in Berkshire and a request for the airliner's auxiliary power unit to be activated – a very unusual occurrence – was heard.

The Typhoons from Coningsby approached the airliner over Manston airfield in Thanet, east Kent, in a matter of minutes after the alert was first sounded, according to officials familiar with the incident.

In the other incident earlier this month, on 2 March, the crew of an American Airlines plane put out an alert, picked up by the air defence control and reporting centre at Boulmer in Northumberland, warning that somebody was trying to get into the cockpit.

Both incidents were false alarms.

There is a terrorism alert involving civil airliners in British airspace about once a month.

© Hawkinge Gazette and Channel Coast News 2010