Stansted Airport: 'Sonic boom' heard as RAF Typhoon 'escorts Bombardier Global Express XRS from Nice to London Stansted'
A "sonic boom" was heard across the UK leaving residents baffled.
The sound could be heard with residents living in Kent hearing an "explosion". One resident tweeted: "Did anyone else just hear a massive bang in Bexleyheath? Sounded like a sonic boom."
Residents living in the Gidea Park and Chingford areas, as well as in Chelmsford and across south Essex, also reported hearing the sound. According to aviation fanatics on X the loud noise was heard due to a British Typhoon fighter jet escorting a private jet to London Stansted Airport.
Tracking on FlightRadar shows a Royal Air Force Typhoon flying around the Stansted Airport area. One user wrote: “Bombardier Global Express XRS en route from Nice to London Stansted escorted by a Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 into Stansted Airport.
“Many people on social media reported hearing a sonic boom from the fighter jet as it raced to intercept the aircraft.” It is not known at this time why the Typhoon was escorting the private jet.
Two Typhoon jets from RAF Coningsby were dispatched to make the intercept over Cambridgeshire. The jets intercepted a Bombardier Global Express registered T7-SGH, indicating its state of registry is San Marino, a landlocked small country in Italy.
The business jet was escorted to land at Stansted, where it taxied to a remote stand on the northern side of the airport away from the main passenger terminals. An RAF spokesman confirmed that RAF Quick Reaction Alert aircraft were launched this morning, but refused to offer further details “because this is an ongoing mission”.