French fighter jet 'tracks' Jet2 flight

[welshandy]

This on the BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-he ... r-40987642

[garyscott]

Used to be a relatively common practise, the RAF used to partake in it (do they still?), USAF also - they relished the regular "Backfire simulator", the Concorde, until a near miss put that out of bounds.

[Snoop 95]

I know from personal experience in 'cold war' days, that commercial pilots would indicate that they were willing and prepared to be practice-intercepted by RAF fighters. The big difference between that and what happened to the Jet2 plane was that the pilot told the passengers to expect it.

[baz1]

i have often heard USA RCH flghts asking if anything wishes to intercept them

[Skymaster]

Avez vous un top-up?

[martmpf]

I'm sure jet 2 pilot ACAS would have warned. In other words they would have known. Fault probably not to make passengers aware.

[Blackcat1]

A Mirage 2000 alongside me!? I would have been chuffed lol. Closest I had was an Iberia B727 on our way to Faro. Very close or it seemed to be, made a few passengers gasp I remember ;-)

[page_verify]

PPrune is suggesting this was a prolonged loss of contact "verification", hence the flight crew had no warning this was about to happen. The days of airliners with passengers on being used for intercept practice stopped many many years ago.