Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Sonic Booms

We had two Typhoon fighter jets pass over us at faster than the speed of sound today. There were two booms that we at first took to be rock blasting of some sort.

It seem an Air France flight had lost radio contact and as part of the proceedure commenced to make a circle. As a precaution, in case of a terrorist hijacking, the fighters scrambled and were authorised to exceed the speed of sound in pursuit.

In the end it turned out to be an ordinary equipment failure and when communications were re-established the flight continued normally to Paris.

The booms were captured by chance when workers were making a film. Video on this page.

Mighty bangs indeed..!! We had a similar situation about 18 months ago when the Typhoons of the Quick Reaction Force over at Coninsgby in Lincolnshire scrambled to intercept a non-receptive inbound aircraft approaching Wales.

They too put the hammer down and came over my house like their pants were on fire and the two 'Booms' were awesome..!! It sounded like a shotgun on the front driveway it was that loud.

Very grateful for them all, though. And what a job, eh?

Wow..

I was on a trackday at Anglesey on Tuesday and saw the smoke of the crash of the Red Arrows plane. The Marshalls at the top end of the circuit saw the accident! Shame the engineer did not get out.

Yes, it makes you realise that all our service personnel are carrying a much higher degree of risk than we normal folk would consider acceptable.

They all have my thanks and respect.

There is a saying amongst RAF Pilots that they never forget they are being paid to do something that they love doing, so they have the best job in the world.

We had a bit of a flap at Stansted a couple of months ago and two Typhoons turned up. Sadly, they just cruised around the area, one high, one low, but didn't give them full welly.

Sonic booms in Syria are a daily occurence , sadly not exciting for the people on the ground .

We all like to romanticise it Hamwich, but life in the forces, particularly navy and air force is in fact safer than civvy life. To quote from the offician figures " Overall, in 2015, the UK Regular Armed Forces were at a statistically significant lower risk of dying compared to the UK general population."

Some fairly ordinary occupations - truck driver for example - lead to shorter lives. And are more vital to us - try living without food!

So reality is its an interesting and exciting life for a young man with no extra risk at all. And just imagine the fun of driving a Typhoon. Got to be up there with a le Mans car. Wish my father hadnt talked me out of Dartmouth.

In the days of Concorde, we in the south west used to get this double boom most days, although it was a deeper boom, rather than the 'crack' in the clip. Always impressive and more or less the same time.

Does anyone else remember this?

I grew up in Paignton and remember it well every evening.
Later I worked in Brentford & enjoyed watching Concorde coming in to land at LHR.

I was lucky enough to fly to JFK on Concorde once. A great experience.