A Typhoon jet returned to RAF Lossiemouth after suffering a “technical issue”.
The aircraft, from RAF Lossiemouth, had been flying near Aberdeen before declaring an emergency and squawking 7700.
The aircraft landed safely and the pilot is fine.
A spokesperson told me:
“An RAF Typhoon aircraft from RAF Lossiemouth on a routine training sortie had a technical issue, as a precaution the pilot returned to base where the aircraft landed safely”
A 7700 squawk is relatively common, it enables ATC to clear a path to expedite a recovery for any aircraft with an issue whether bird strike, technical or anything else.
What is the significance of “Squawking 7700”?
Captain Hoke is a Boeing 757/767 captain for a package express airline and also runs the website AeroSavvy, he had this to say.
“Declaring an emergency means the crew determines they have an ‘urgency’ or ‘distress’ situation. “Urgency” means the crew is concerned about the safety of the flight and needs timely (but not necessarily immediate) assistance. A ‘distress’ condition means that the flight is in serious and/or imminent danger and requires immediate assistance”.
Last nights curry coming out fast. Emergency landing needed. Get the toilet roll in the fridge. It’s a hot one
Oh I so sympathise.🤣
🤣🤣🤣
When I was based in Belize, the RAF trooper had a really bad habit of breaking down over Florida.
When I was based in Assi, they had a habit of diverting to Rio.
funny that.
I remember certain aircrew declaring an emergency on landing….then the Victor being towed to dispersal after shutting down just off the runway. Demijohns of Cypriot brandy and cartons of fags meanwhile loaded into whatever vehicle was willing to take them for a cut. HMC must have known this was going on but they were not allowed airside 😅
In 2022 it will probably be for a keg of vape liquid and a barrel of protein shakes😂😂😂
Yup, this PC woke lot are a bit booooring!
You’ve not seen what they put in a lot of vape stuff these days…..no wonder the younger generation are always vaping… it’s mild narcotics all the way ( and perfectly legal apparently).
And soon to be a health catastrophe by latest reports.
Yes indeed, vaping was mean to be a way to transition away from smoking, but all we have done is created a new socially acceptable way for people to give themselves a long term condition.
The Tobacco industry now have it all ways, a product to sell to western young adults while they still sell the old death sticks to china, the second and third world, big business at its best is amoral and at its worst immoral ( Tobacco, oil and food industry hiding and twisting scientific evidence base on the death their products cause is the true night of immoral behaviour as each of those industries has or will have knowingly shortened the lives of hundreds of millions of people to make money).
Well I do think some folks will do whatever appeals at that time. Vaping is still probably loads better than smoking tobacco. We must be about 10 years in to the vaping trend and it still seems safer than tobacco.
Maybe one day someone comes up with something that is 100% safe and appeals to the younger generations as they grow up in the same way cigarettes and now vaping does. Until then it’s the less of 2 evils in my eyes
True, it’s better than tobacco at least, just not the safe thing a lot of people think it is And one Benefit is that it does not stink like fags.
I vape just now and have done for 2 years after smoking for many years. I tried to give up with the usual patches, will power etc but always fell back after a while.
I feel much better vaping and I think when ready it will be easier to give up.
I understand it’s perhaps dangerous and hopefully it will be ok but if I had keep smoking my health would be much worse.
It is a shame seeing kids taking up vaping but As yet a solution to that issue of kids doing what’s not good for them hasn’t been found.
At least the percentage of kids taking up tobacco is down compared to yesteryear.
To be honest if your a bit older, the change from smoking to vaping is significant and important, dealing with a long term addiction like smoking is very hard, so good going. For me like you said it’s he fact vaping has moved from a support for getting people off an addiction, to an addiction in itself for a whole new generation ( the fact is they still put addictive drugs like nicotine and the legal bits cannabis Products in them).
Sorry, HMC? _____ ______ Controller(s)? 🤔
Her Majestys Customs and Excise
Thanks, would have missed decoding that acronym by a country mile. Strangely enough, briefly considered that first two words might have been ‘His Majesty’s,’ but never Customs! Dual use airfield?
No military, always a Customs bod around when overseas deployments ended.
HIS Majesty’s Customs & Excise 🙂
The tax man cometh. Or it’s full name is HMRC, His Majesties Revenue and Customs.
😱😁
It was a two-way street. B52s used to fly in for the Strike Command bombing competition in the ’70s. They would always leave after the exercise with antique furniture and Scotch whiskey stashed, even saw a four-poster bed lashed into a bomb bay! Of course, it would never happen nowadays….
When returning from exercise in Germany to Shoeburyness 36 heavy Regt RA late 60s tried that trick at harwich when they arrived back in secure compound the HMR & Customs where there wzit ing with PVd security cleared Customs officers.CO was in trouble.
Ruperts deserve everything coming. My TA Ruperts were little Hitlers with a posh accent.
I know the FRADU Canberra’s at Yeovil would aways come back stuffed to the gills with everything you could imagine everytime they were deployed to the med… infact I’m pretty sure the FRDU “imported” most of the “Moroccan” brasses found in the south west and a fair number of other objet d’art and antiquities….not saying the FRADU were full time art and stuff importers but they worked hard at it when deployed.
Canberra was well suited to import duties. Plenty of stashing space 😅
RAF Trooper. Is that army speak for a vehicle. Perhaps helicopter/ plane?
MS wrote:
No it was the RAF trooping flight, hence Trooper,
In answer to you question regards army slang for such a vehicle, that would be..Goeshomie Bird.
😉
How awful for you. I hope RAF apologised.
War may be hell, but peacetime ops.–party hearty! Multiple occasions where aircrew from coastal bases, evacuating in advance of hurricanes, called ahead to request that we make golf course tee(-off) times for them. Read recently about a NG Herc crew that diverted to pick up someone’s racing bike. Believe they were invited to have a ‘discussion’ w/ Wing CC.
works the other way too, many foreign forces military flights into Scotland carry golf clubs & go home with whisky. 😀
Not sure that works with Lossiemouth 🙂 .
I do wonder if most fast jet aircrew miss having another body on board? Being solo might be lonely at times especially when having a tough moment.
I suppose also being stuck in a confined space with some of the people I work with could be described as an extreme form of torture
“Putin declares emergency over Ukraine”
It’s a shame Putin does not have some form of catastrophe failure ( cardiac or cerebral would be best). Not many people I would happy see drop dead, but in his case I make an exception to my rule around the sanctity of human life and not wishing people to fuck off and die.
I’m sure a fall/stroke/suicide/choking fit (delete as appropriate) will be in store for him in the near future. You know how unhealthy these head shed Russian dross are, just look at all the CEOs of various Russkie companies who happen to have so many accidents in the last 3 months. Putin needs to die before he takes even more people with him.
I’m sure at some point he’s going to have a window fall typical russian style, ohh the irony.
As they say, “live by the window, die by the window”…
(feel free to substitute “polonium” or “novichok” for “window”)
,😳
😁
I have to say, I do wonder if today we have just seen the two acts that have stepped us inevitably onto the road to a general war between Russia and NATO. The formal annexation of four Ukrainian provinces, with Putin effectively backing himself into a nuclear Conner saying he will defend these stolen bits of Ukraine as if they are Russian with all means and accusing the west of trying to destroy Russia. I’m pretty sure Putin has now effectively committed himself to war with the NATO unless the west stops supporting Ukraine in its fight to reclaim its stolen territory. Ukraine will clearly keep fighting ( it has to) and the US and U.K. are not going to back aways from supporting Ukraine, which will force the hands of the rest of NATO ( I think one or two NATO members would back off if left to their own )
The icing on the cake is Ukraine now rushing to formally request membership of NATO. Even though according to the charter Ukraine cannot become a member as it’s in an active conflict.it still puts NATO in a bit of a position.
I think Putin many just have left himself nowhere to go other than using tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine and then going to war with NATO ( I don’t think there would be a way around a russia NATO war if tactical nuclear weapons are used by Russia)
I now logically give a NATO Russian war a risk score of 25 : five for likelihood ( over 50% chance it will occur) and with a five for outcome so catastrophic for the U.K. which mean potentially significant loss of life and damage ( 25 is the highest scored risk you would see on the national risk register ). It’s messed up but I think it’s time to start sorting out the protect and survive planning
Agree. Believe Hawaii is creating shelters by boring into foothills/mountains, sufficient to accommodate state population (protection against NK moron, but obviously capable of double duty). Unaware of any concerted effort in remaining 49. How is civil defense planning progressing in UK? Both countries should make intelligent use of the current time period: reminds me of the period from Sep 39 to Apr 40. Hope Admiralty is considering a second SSBN on station, just might be needed.
I imagine that will be a last resort.
Vanguard was out of service for about 7 years, and the other three boats had to take extra strain. Now Rolls Royce has moved to PWR3s, the class can’t be refuelled without massive additional cost (not that refuelling Vanguard wasn’t at a massive cost, but it would mean building new nuclear infrastructure to handle PWR2s and PWR3s at the same time, and hiring/training more people). I think the class will have to last until the Dreadnoughts are ready and extra duty will not be ordered lightly.
Unfortunately at present there is no focus on civil defence or civil contingency.
The last labour government was very hot on such things ( development of NBC patients in all Emergency depetments, systems of palletised pods for Meds and resources for such events. But even that was focused on the management of terror attacks not a general war.
The administrations from 2010 onward have been effectively focused on the reduction of the state, so any form of planning and intervention has been more anathema to them, right until something kicks off then they have denied the problem for a bit and finally run around like headless chickens, So effectively very good at creating small government ( not always a bad thing and in some domains of life needed) but it means they have been shit at managing risk ( Well from the point of view of someone who’s job it’s aways been to manage catastrophe risks to life and limb anyway, most people will have never noticed or understood as they are not professional paranoids).
Personally as a paranoid manager of risk, I would be setting up civil defence….but it seems cutting taxes and creating market chaos seem to be more the thing with out politicians.
On paper we still have hundreds of shelters available that could house thousands of people but they have been allowed to willow since the 90s. However there is a hive of activity around the corsham mod sites re: Burlington that is technically in a mothballed state, that could/is being reworked up since the tensions with Russia really kicked in last year, that is to act as a last resort for government/king. For the rest of us, unfortunately we die in the great fires to come.
“However there is a hive of activity around the corsham mod sites re: Burlington that is technically in a mothballed state”
Really? What sort?
Known as “Site 3” It has been known about by Russia since the 60s, is directly beneath the northern end of a major target at Basil Hill Barracks ( GOSCC and other stuff ) and is located in “Spring Quarry” ( clue in the name, leaks like a sieve )
There are other active underground facilities within that general area in Browns and Tunnel Quarries, all vulnerable. The one in Tunnel is better protected I believe and not just a converted quarry.
The other varied RSG ( Regional Seats of Government ) when sold off in the 90s all had clauses to reoccupy if needed, though some have holes in the roof, others are museums, and all are known about.
More likely if such contingency is going on it is at undisclosed locations where the King and other VVIP are relocated where they are not directly targeted.
The bunkers well known to the public are equally well known to Russia and would not last 5 minutes to a direct hit, as they are holes in the ground, in effect semi sunken( Northwood / Naphill spring to mind ) with an earthen concrete roof and not the very deep facilities that the US is reputed to have that are hopefully deep enough to withstand that sort of attack.
PINDAR ( DCMC ) will be better protected as purpose built.
To be honest there’s probably isn’t a bunker anywhere that could stand a direct strike, hense why a lot of work was given up along the realisation that hiding underground probably isn’t the best defence policy either.
As regards the corsham area it has been undergoing complete renovations past couple of years, most has be to selling off public housing etc. But around the quarry sites a lot of brand new perimeter fencing has gone up coupled with heavier than normal MOD police presence with probably the heaviest concentration of CCTV outside London.
The other thing is the local fire brigade (RAF if memory serves) on site which along with the base which used to also house the hq of the provost service was moved has made come back though it’s hard to see from the main road as the new lay out has changed the entrance, I’m unsure if it’s civil now or service fire but that points massively to works underground-whether it’s because the government want another go or maybe fire safety reasons probably has to have inspections every now and then.
Yes, the MDP presence there has always been substantial. ( I know, I have been stopped by them before at Corsham 😃 )
Provost? The RAF P&SS ( Provost and Security Service ) moved to Henlow years ago, they used to be at the Rudloe Manor site which was sold off long ago and is further north. Are you saying P&SS has returned?
Are you on about the main entrance at the end of Westwells Road? That was created much enlarged when the GOSCC and other things went into the big office building you see there. That is pretty standard with redeveloped MoD locations, bigger car parks, access, ect.
The area west of Westwells Road ( Site 1 ) has been partially sold off, the area to the south is the Ark Data Centre ( lots of HMG involvement )
This is a site I am very familiar with, its layout, and who is in there. I guess you’re a local?
I meant fire service used to have a station further up westwells in the older part of the above ground buildings not far from the manor. The station shut many moons ago when everything was wrapped up it’s hard to find any evidence of what unit stationed there due to the secrets act and what a cluster of bases which are there. (Originally it was said they were from Colerne) The most recent activity is it appears the fire service civil or service (it’s hard to tell because of the layout of the roundabout is hard to stop) are back as there are regular engines appear behind all the fencing.
It’s thought the data centre thats now here was funded out of GCHQ bit again that’s impossible to prove. But is amazingly located aroud the corner from the c.c.c-one of the most secure places in UK as works on software for our trident missiles.
I have family that way so used to travel around them parts frequently, just wait till you here the old UFO stories there a laugh. But yeah if your not a local and go driving off the main road expect to be stopped and questioned lol.
Ahh, I think you mean at the site at the northern end of Westwells by the old backbone comms tower “5 Ways” ? That is site 1 “Rudloe Site” If you want a closer look just park up further away and walk, that is what I used to do you can walk all around the area without problems unless you stray onto MoD land. ( See below )
😂 The CCC. Yes, that is where I was stopped. Right by the entrance having walked around to the BBQ round the back!
In those days ( I was there mid 90s ) you could walk down that road up to the entrance, now it is gated off.
You are correct, one of CCCs functions concerns Trident, hence its secrecy.
It is true, there are GCHQ links at Corsham in the sense that the military Joint Cyber Unit (C) and the Cyber Security Operations Centre / Joint Security Co ordination Centre / CERT is located in the huge building alongside GOSCC, but that is no surprise given that the site is one of if not the primary hub of the military communications network and on the backbone spine of our internet and fibre optic network.
There are/were several other interesting locations around there. Copenacre was sold, Rudloe Manor Site was sold. Hawthorn Site just to the north is still there ( was CDCN now Skynet Network and Spacecraft Operations Centre ) The Blockhouse bunker you see from the road there dates from the Cold War, but it has been updated since and renamed Skynet Drive. It links underground into Browns Quarry.
Rudloe Site ( Site1 ) and of course Basil Hill, where most activity has now been concentrated. Colerne further north has one of the Skynet Ground stations and the Network Control Centre.
CCC as we have mentioned off Peel Circus, that housing estate did not exist when I started looking into that place.
If you walk or drive south down Westwells Road to your right the grassy bunker mound has a pedestrian entrance to Burlington, complete with London Underground escalators I believe.
I believe the entire underground site stretches from Box Hill in the west to the Sainsburys car park in the east in Corsham itself according to a local I spoke to. There are lots of maps online too, not all accurate and certain stuff like exits still in use and other areas retained by the MoD are not shown.
The local rumours of a link from Box tunnel and stream trains is partially true, the old portal to the underground platforms is at the London end and links to a siding. It was used as a munitions factory in WW2.
In case anyone is wondering, all that is open source. I have “an idea” on other stuff but not going there.
Yes it’s certainly one of the most interesting places regarding the amount of different agencies/units stationed in and around the area forgot about skynet.
Box hill tunnel is another interesting area as it was said the government would have a special train ready 24/7 to whisk parliament out in an emergency, there is a supposed entrance inside box tunnel which directly leads underground. Again hard to prove but it directly over the quarry area/Burlington site so rumors persist.
Tour right about all the maps publicly available and if true!!! Would suggest literally tens of miles of tunnels/complexes. It is said the amount of activity above ground is mirrored underground but nothing is official so who knows, I’m sure in a shtf situation the government has a place to hide whether here or elsewhere.
It’s true. The reality that so many tri service entities are located there reveals it’s importance.
Special trains for HMG? 😆 I touched on that rumour already, that story comes from the entrance I mentioned at the eastern end of Box Hill tunnel. It’s an old tunnel entrance to the munitions factory siding. MoD police have the keys. I know, as the sign on the blocked off tunnel entrance said so!
That is the “entrance” conspiracy theorists talk about. An entrance inside Box hill tunnel is complete cobblers in my view, and as a signalman on the railways I can tell you why.
If there was some “secret siding” not only would every driver on the GW be aware of it, but so would the MOMs and P Way walking that track. A siding needs a set if points to diverge, taking this secret train on a new route into the bunker. The points would be seen. Even if they were disconnected there is still a trace and you’d see the entrance on the tunnel wall, even if it were blocked up.
No mate, no secret trains to Corsham. What would be the point when one you’d just fly there and two the place is a known target. Back when Burlington was known as “Turnstile” central gov would be taken from Horse Guards by bus, RVing at Warminster or Colerne. That was when many thousands were due to be relocated.
The rail tunnel indeed passes very close by to the underground workings.
Yes the underground area is extensive, but 99% is legacy, it’s all mostly WW2 era and disused, or was used for underground storage until the early 000s, possibly still.
The likely areas of continued MoD use are obvious, and beneath still active MoD installations. Browns Quarry, and parts of Tunnel Quarry ( District 9 , CCC ) and Spring Quarry beneath GOSCC ( no real surprise it’s in effect a huge basement for the comms and IT ) and the area of Springs Q used by the Ark Data Centre.
Yes, HMG have underground sites they can use.
Take a look at Monckton Farliegh area too, another huge underground area dating from the war years.
You should look up a guy called Matthew Williams if you are interested in the conspiracy stuff and Nick McCamley for accurate info on the underground area.
Yeap you’ve got the Monckton area also-probably connected to corsham some where in there.
I find the conspiracy theories around corsham a bit boring as it normally involves aliens/UFOs or underground prisons or whatever evil conspiracy the UK government is up to.
It’ll be great if they just allowed cameras in there to show those people up
Okay. I’ve changed my mind. Forget Type 26s and extra Typhoons. The hell with new satellite provision. If there’s money available, FFS, upgrade the underground steam trains!
😀You know me, the right infrastructure is every bit as important as the deployable fighty stuff in my book. It has to be if the UK was ever attacked.
Just to muddy the waters further, in the 80s Duncan Campbell reported in War Plan UK that the army had advertised for “underground trains” for a location, which I think is another source of some rumours.
And I don’t think he or the army had tube trains for PATA in mind.
Salisbury Plain is the most likely location in my view for this stuff.
Just rereading, the “UFO rumours” you mention were not without foundation. The RAFs P&SS Flying Complaints Flight was located at Rudloe and investigated UFO sightings.
It passed many of them onto DI55 in London, not AS2A in MoD who were simply a public front and telephone contact.
I think your analysis is a bit black. First, NATO won’t accept Ukrainian membership even while there’s a territorial dispute with Russia, much less while there’s an active war going on. I think that’s part of the reason Russia is trying to muddy the waters, so even after the war, NATO will still reject Ukrainian requests for admission.
Putin doesn’t want NATO interference in eastern Europe and pushing along a course that leads to all-out war is unlikely to be his endgame. Putin fancies himself a strategist, and he may believe he’s already fighting NATO, which will back down at the final hurdle. On this side we know he’s not fighting NATO, not yet. He’s fighting Ukraine along with a bunch of other countries by proxy, many of whom happen to belong to NATO. The difference is, NATO can’t back down as long as it’s not in the game. If it’s directly attacked to bring it into the game, it also can’t back down.
So I think Putin’s bluster is setting the stage for a post-war settlement after his brinkmanship causes the West to blink, rather than to allow him to cross the nuclear line. Unfortunately for us all, he’s misunderstood the dynamic on this side. Macron and Scholz can wimp out as much as they want. It will have no material effect.
Hi Jon as I pointed out Ukraine does not hit the nato standards for membership, it’s just a cherry on the top.
The fact is Putin is not blustering or likely bluffing, for him it’s life and death if he backs down he’s probably a dead man. So it’s not bluster, every bit of rhetoric that comes out of his mouth is trapping him into a set of options. We are not look at logic here. If he says he’s annexed part Ukraine he has to do that, if he says those provinces of Ukraine he has annexed are part of Russia and he will defend Russian integrity with nuclear weapons he will have to do so if Ukraine keep retaking land. I’d he does not he is personally doomed anyway.
So the risk of Putin using tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine is now huge ( most experts now acknowledge this) if Ukraine keep winning and they will do so if the west keep proving them with modern weapons ( and the US and U.K. will keep doing so).
The US has already stated that they have been in contact with Putin and stated what will happen if nuclear weapons are used in Ukraine. The US and wider west will be forced to react with extreme Strength in the case of Russia using a tactical nuc. I suspect the following would be options for NATO reaction to this:
1) deployment of US or nato forces into Ukraine.
2) Air interdiction of Russian forces in Ukraine.
3) Restricted warfare against Russian navel units.
Putin knows this and he has aready started the rhetoric of NATO and the US attacking Russia, so any response by him or escalation will have the dialogue of defending Russian soil, which is generating the level of emotion in his population to allow him to go nuclear on Ukrainian forces ( which are now cast as US slaves sent to attack Russia).
Its as black as black can be. In the Cold War we prepared for all out war when the USSR was actually relatively stable and not actually activity invading a European democracy….Now have a dictator using the playbook of the third reich who is actively spewing out to his population that we are attacking them, while actively pursuing a war of conquest.
Add in the infrastructure attacks that have just happened on the Baltic pipelines ( which for the west were a set of warnings about what he would be willing to do to our infrastructure and for the Russian population another example of how the US has attacked them).
he may be utterly backed into a corner, but this man is ruthless beyond anything you or I could really understand and everything he is doing, is path designed to try and destroy support for Ukraine, intimidate the west and feed his own population with the need for war. Not only that if he fails to deliver on his threats to the west and Ukraine or do what he says he will do then He’s a dead man anyway.
I give it over a 50% chance we will be at war with Russia. With the trigger being a tactical nuclear strike against a Ukrainian push that is collapsed a Russian front. This will not probably happen this year as we are heading into the Rasputitsa but come the restart of the Eastern European campaign season we will see this potentially playing out.
Let’s hope is own take him out ,before he takes the world out 🙏
Completely agree Andrew.
I agree it’s getting harder to see an out for Putin other than death.
I think potentially there are only a few options left
1)Removal of Putin from within Russia ( possible). As the war and risk gets to much for Russia.
2)China having a word in his ear and removing itself as a market for Russian energy (unlikely).
3) Putin Managed to get his military in some sort of order and beats Ukraine into submission ( possible, but not likely with the west throwing arms to Ukraine)
4) The west give up on Ukraine and remove support. ( very unlikely as the US/U.K. know that’s game over for western dominance and likely to be contagious)
Im not sure any of these options would come to pass, but if not then it’s possible we will have a general war in Europe.
The problem is even the options that avoid war are probably only putting it down the tracks. As the Cold War containment strategy can no longer work without China supporting and I think it would take the use of a nuclear weapon by Putin to shift China to a position of supporting the containment of Putins Russia ( I think they would Support the west if Russia did start using tactical nuclear weapons as China is an aggressive player of the game ( it tends to participate in the world order as it plays to its advantage and it wants to lead the world order ) and not a deranged imperialist like Putin ( I suspect China is not liking the whole way it’s going at all).
Agree. A cold EU population will soon lose its support for Ukraine this Winter imo. Germany is the weakest link. And any revelations about Nordstream 2 could blow any support. There was an article in the Mail yesterday suggesting Biden was behind it. Now if MSM is reporting stuff like that???
“Reporting” is a generous word to use.
Yes there was a lot of rubbish like that, but the problem is I feeds Putins dialogue of the west attacking Russia and places us one step closer the a NATO russia war.
I think France and Germany may go cold on Ukraine, but the U.K., US and Poland are not and nothing will now change Finland from its course to join NATO. As for Germany being cold, they will not be the moment Putin feels pushed into using a tactical nuclear weapon, which he has now locked himself into, unless either the US stop supporting Ukraine ( unlikely) or Ukraine gives up is sovereign land and population ( no nation would do that ).
Unfortunately Putins latest double down on intimidation to the west and Ukraine has pretty much locked in a cycle down to a NATO Russia war. Only China removing support/forcing him back or his own removing him is likely to change the direction.
When was this incident? Report a bit thin on basic info.
it is being report that Ukrainian troops have surround Lyman.
When the mass surrenders start with the “fresh” troops? It will be a different tale. Those guys do not want to be there and appear to have no love of Putin.
The Russians seem to have run away from Lyman.