Saddened! wrote:
Anyone see the fighter plane escorting the passenger plane over Stockport just? Seemed to be really harassing it, circling it both over and under and in front of the cockpit. Don't know what's going on but must have made it quite choppy and scary for those on the passenger plane.
Apparently due to information received by the pilot re a suspected device on board.
Doubt it will have made any difference to the passengers, apart from wondering what the hell was going on. The fighter pilot will know where to position himself to avoid his wash affecting other aircraft.
I flew out of JFK to Manchester on BA in 2003. Looked out the window somewhere over the Atlantic and saw the lights of a fighter a few hundred feet below us, close enough I could see the cockpit display and the pilot's head moving. I asked one of the crew if there was any reason we might be being escorted but they didn't believe me until they looked for themselves.
As it was, after a short time it slowly flew ahead and disappeared. Most likely they were simply heading over to Iraq ready for Dubya's brainfart war which began later that month, but it certainly got the mind going.
