The first thing the image in this post reminded us is the famous scene of Top Gun (when Maverick turns its F-14 Tomcat upside down to give the finger to a Soviet Mig pilot) and the subsequent talk with “Charlie”:
C: “So, where exactly were you?”
M: “We started up on his six when he pulled through the clouds. I went above him.”
C: “If you were directly above him, how could you see him?”
M: “Because I was inverted.”
The photo was taken by a pilot of a French Air Force Mirage 2000-5F pilot during a training intercept on a Belgian Air Force F-16AM.
Most probably, the Belgian “Viper” did not react at all to the simulated attack by the French fighter jet belonging to the Groupe de Chasse 1/2 Cigognes (that posted the image on their Facebook page): every now and then, NATO and allied air forces take the opportunity to practice interception on military traffic transiting through their airspace of responsibility that agrees to be intercepted for training purposes.
Such close encounters terminate with the identification of the “zombie” and no simulated dogfight takes place, as the “enemy” plane is not involved in any exercise but is simply flying as a General Air Traffic.
Image credit: EC 1/2 French Air Force
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Official statement from 1/2 Cigognes :
Concernant
la photo publiée récemment au sujet de l’interception d’un F-16 belge
en transit au-dessus du territoire national, nous avons lu sur le Net
quelques commentaires ou explications assez farfelues.
Pour être clair et ne pas mettre en
doute le professionnalisme des pilotes du 1/2, non, il ne s’agissait
pas d’une manœuvre « à la Maverick » consistant à venir se placer
au-dessus du F-16. Ce dernier avait déjà été intercepté en procédure
normale et avec son accord et l’avion de la PO était dans son aile comme
il le fait pour n’importe quelle patrouille. Le pilote du -5, comme il
arrive régulièrement dans cette configuration, a simplement procédé à un
changement d’aile rapide par l’utilisation d’une figure de voltige
basique appelée « barrique » qui le fait passer au-dessus du leader, ici
le F-16, de la droite vers la gauche. C’est l’instant du sommet de la
barrique qui était capturée par la photographie. Pour vous en
convaincre, voici la deuxième partie de la barrique telle qu’elle s’est
déroulée
That’s exactly what was going to say…I think.
@David Cenciotti: Better write nothing than such BS. Maybe, just post the picture and nothing more…
Mon ami,
Where’s the BS? I just posted facts and wrote that the first thing the image reminded me (and several thousand readers) is a scene from a movie. It seemed quite clear to the majority of the readers that referring to Top Gun was hilarious and the fact the FAF did feel the need to clarify the event when it was just joke makes it suspect…