STRANGE MILITARY AIRCRAFT - SAT 05/08/17

[Aircraftpaulcornwall]

Hi all,
Yesterday evening (Sat 05/08/17) I had a look at FlightRadar24.com and I noticed an aircraft with the callsign (according to FlightRadar24) of VQBYK (EXE - ?)
just departing Exeter Airport - on there, I 'watched' this aircraft (most probably military!) first go NW from Exeter, thence to the N. Somerset Coast and thence southwestwards
just off the N. Devon and N. Cornish coasts to close to Lands End - it then turned on a track just to the NE of here and thence went off to the NE.
In fact, it was a 'triangle' sort of flightplan. When I knew that it was coming in 'this' direction I got out the nokkies and soon heard a 'heavy' jet noise.
At that time of the evening (2020Z) (2120BST), (just about 24 hours ago), I was just able to make out 2 white (1 second) strobing lights (on the port & starboard wingtips) and a flashing red strobe light on the fuselage half way between the white strobes.
This was an aircraft with 2 jet (wing strung) engines and swept back wings, (something maybe similar to the size of a Lear Jet)
FR24 indicated that the Max Alt was 40,000ft off the North Cornish Coast and airspeed was 400Kt Max.
The 'radar' was MLAT-1 (which would possibly indicate that this was 'military' in origin)
I put in a search for this callsign and the nearest that I could find was a privately owned (possibly also Qatar) Boeing 747! (which this was NOT!)
Any info would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks -Paul

[Aircraftpaulcornwall]

FlightRadar24 'timed out' and I lost where it finally went to - the nearest that I saw it was just SE of Exeter Airport (whether it put back down into there or not, I am unsure!)

[POL]

VQ-BYK is an Embraer 170, which are often serviced at Exeter.

Civil, nothing special. MLAT doesn't mean military by any stretch, in fact on FR24 the only military you'll see are ones that don't need MLAT to plot them (and even then, only if they've not been filtered out yet).

[Nighthawke]

Hi - almost certainly a civilian Embraer 170 registration VQ-BYK (VQ-Bxx Bermuda but often used by Russian Airlines). This has been in store at Exeter and belongs to S7 Airlines. Possibly on a test flight?

[JAWS]

Hi all,
Yesterday evening (Sat 05/08/17) I had a look at FlightRadar24.com and I noticed an aircraft with the callsign (according to FlightRadar24) of VQBYK (EXE - ?)
just departing Exeter Airport - on there, I 'watched' this aircraft (most probably military!) first go NW from Exeter, thence to the N. Somerset Coast and thence southwestwards
just off the N. Devon and N. Cornish coasts to close to Lands End - it then turned on a track just to the NE of here and thence went off to the NE.
In fact, it was a 'triangle' sort of flightplan. When I knew that it was coming in 'this' direction I got out the nokkies and soon heard a 'heavy' jet noise.
At that time of the evening (2020Z) (2120BST), (just about 24 hours ago), I was just able to make out 2 white (1 second) strobing lights (on the port & starboard wingtips) and a flashing red strobe light on the fuselage half way between the white strobes.
This was an aircraft with 2 jet (wing strung) engines and swept back wings, (something maybe similar to the size of a Lear Jet)
FR24 indicated that the Max Alt was 40,000ft off the North Cornish Coast and airspeed was 400Kt Max.
The 'radar' was MLAT-1 (which would possibly indicate that this was 'military' in origin)
I put in a search for this callsign and the nearest that I could find was a privately owned (possibly also Qatar) Boeing 747! (which this was NOT!)
Any info would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks -Paul

Possibly this :


VQ-BYK Embraer ERJ-170 It arrived at Norwich in April as N816MA , then went to Exeter .

http://www.civilianaviation.co.uk/forum ... 6MA#p88183

[Aircraftpaulcornwall]

Hi EGVP, Nighthawke and STEVIEJAWS,
Many thanks for all of your replies which are greatly appreciated.
It all now looks very much like a 'test' or 'proving' flight which took place last evening.
Very many thanks anyway -Paul

[Aircraftpaulcornwall]

And, having looked at STEVIEJAWS link, then this looks very much to be the aircraft which I saw last night! -Paul

[timb]

VQ-BYK definitely up on an air test Saturday evening, saw it depart and return

[Josh B]

Civil type and nothing to do with culdrose either

[Aircraftpaulcornwall]

timb & Josh B -
Thanks for both replies. Keep your eyes upwards - as always! -Paul