What was that fighter jet?
I nearly leapt out of my skin,

Rochdale here, just saw a couple of fast jets heading over Blackstone edge.
Saw a pair of AH-64’s out playing last weekend, too!

Must be because it is Airshow season.

Yep
Sat in Cheadle and just shook the office. Seems very close the flight path!
Wonder what its up to?

Just had a look, a couple were escorting an Emirates flight into Manchester a little earlier. Could have been those.

yup…fighter escort on a Qatar plane.
twitter all a wash with it.

Yes they where above the Emirates flight, then circled the airport several times.
I was able to follow a bit of what was going on as we live on a hill, however it was noise that shook everything.

Sat in Cheadle Hulme and it looked (and sounded) like a Eurofighter that went over our house.

Shock and Awe!!!

Was just driving the Stockport section of the M60 as they escorted it overhead.

Yep. Definitely Typhoons. They make a wonderful noise!

Just been on BBC news. Jets escorting civil aircraft into Manchester airport. All landed safely.
Something maybe on the local news in 2 minutes.
Glad everything is okay.
Thought it was odd as we never get military aircraft over this way as we are quite built up and near the flightpath t MiA on one side.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-28662561

Confirmed as Qatar, looked like a triple 7 to me.

Not seen any other flights coming in since the incident.

So what’s the point in that then?

Scenario A, they think someone’s going to fly the plane into something or explode it over something precious. They shoot it down. They do that ASAP, preferably over something cheap, like The North.

Scenario B, there’s a threat someone might blow it up. Aside from getting better footage for Youtube, what are the Typhoons for? Crossing your fingers and hoping for the best can be done just as well from the ground.

open now….they come in past my office window.

Scenario A, pretty much.
Probably a good idea to get eyes-on as early as possible given that large planes are basically winged destruction in the wrong hands.

But also partly B. Good FLIR footage can be useful in the event that something does happen.

video of the plane from the plane.

instagram video linky

the interweb is awesome sometimes

Wow, quick on the draw there with instagram. Wonder if the plane is quarantined in a far corner somewhere of evacuated down the chutes ASAP.

id be so excited to see a fighter escort up close that id forget my chances of a firey death had just significantly increased 🙂

Another report:

http://news.sky.com/story/1313427/passenger-plane-escorted-to-manchester-airport

I still don’t understand the point of the RAF response. Thankfully it didn’t come to this, but what was the Tyff going to do to prevent a ‘device’ on the A330 being exploded, without having a similar effect?

Clearly they’d shoot the aricraft down in the event that the person on board with the bomb diverted the aircraft to overfly a large city or town or head for any large sky scrapers. They’re not going to sit by and do nothing in this post 9/11 world.

i’d say it’s also a case of getting eyes on the plane in case the worst happens.

People keep mentioning 2 fighters but I only saw one. It circled past our house from the Glossop area, then flew in with the Qatar flight, then I saw it circling the airport.
Seems as though it was a hoax.
I hope the hoaxer doesn’t get the limelight he craves and has to pay expenses.

zokes – the aim is to ensure that any explosion happens in the least unfortunate place*. Whether that is caused by something on the plane or something fired from the fighter.

*Over Wythamshaw, for example.

Though if it came down Wythenshawe there would be nothing left by the time the investigators got to the wreckage.

*High fives slowoldman*