we know now that it was two jets launched from raf coningsby and this is part of the ref was my quickuty 2a hours a day to protect british airspace if there is believed to be a threat. 0n protect british airspace if there is believed to be a threat. on this occasion there was a plane flying over central london which was not responding to radio calls. the raf had to get out and check it was ok and they had to get there fast so they put their foot to the floor metaphorically and they break through the sound barrier which is the sonic boom you hear, but everything was ok, they intercepted the jet everything was ok, they intercepted thejet and everything was ok, they intercepted the jet and it re—established communications and came back safely. some people's safety may have been disturbed but it is nice to know that the ref are watching over us. it is. we need to do the science bit. what is a sonic boom? it is the pressure waves generated when an aircraft goes through the sound barrier, normally about 700 miles another. your normal passengerjet will not get anywhere near that. it isa will

we now know that it was caused by the two tone phone jets taking off from raf coningsby.been a hijacked jet, something very serious. —— these two typhoon jets. this is an exercise, but it happened for real in the middle of the night when we were sleeping. alarm rings. so you so everybody springing into action, we now see the raf typhoon taxing out. it takes a while to take off, but we had at last night the typhoons intercepted that plane within about 12 minutes over central london last night. while a look at these pictures, i can tell you the story of how it looked from the pilot on that brings six —— that boeing aircraft. what happened was they had a problem with their radio communication i did not know for ten minutes. for another ten minutes they were trying to sort out the problem and the pellet was concentrating on his switches in the cockpit and while he was doing that, he just about establish radio communications and looked out his left side and had the fright of his life and so there is raf typhoon right alongside them. they fly very close and he said he could see

we now know that it was caused by these two typhoon jets taking off from raf coningsby to go to interceptt or something else very serious. let's just look at an exercise that gives us an idea of what happens when the alarm goes off. this is an exercise, but it happened for real in the middle of the night while we were sleeping. alarm rings. so, you so everybody springing into action there. we can now see the raf typhoon taxing out. it takes a little while to take off. in fact, we had at last night at the typhoons intercepted that plane within about 12 minutes over central london last night. while we are looking at these pictures, i can tell you the story of what it looked like from the pilot's point of view on that boeing. he has been speaking to me via e—mail. he said that what happened was that they had a problem with the radio communications, they did not know for about ten minutes and then for another ten minutes they were trying to sort out the problem. the pilot was concentrating on his switches in the cockpit and while he was doing that, he just about re—establish radio communicati

the metropolitan police says it was a sonic boom from planes that were launched from raf coningsby ind barrier and that generated that sonic boom. the two jets intercepted the plane. the plane re—established radio communications and all was well and the planes have returned to base. this happens on a fairly regular basis, maybe half a dozen times a year. but if the planes break the sonic boom on a saturday afternoon you wouldn‘t hear it above the general background noise. when it happens middle of a sunday night when you are sleeping soundly you would hear it. the plane itself we believe was a boeing 767 which was on delivery so there were no passengers on board, it was flying from tel aviv flying over central london, so you can imagine by the authorities were concerned, why they had to make sure that plane was safe and not a threat to anyone. i don‘t know how your science is, but explain what a sonic boom is. i don‘t know how your science is, but explain what a sonic boom ism is where the jet breaks the sound barrier and as it penetrates that sound barrier it creates that enormous no