[Audio] I’m instructed by Her Majesty’s government of the United Kingdom to warn you if you do not respond you will be shot down

October 30, 2014 Military Aviation
David Cenciotti

“I’m instructed by Her Majesty’s government of the United Kingdom to warn you if you do not respond you will be shot down”

On Oct. 29, two RAF Typhoon fighter jets were scrambled from RAF Coningsby airbase, and flew at supersonic speeds across the UK to intercept a Latvian Antonov An-26 cargo plane that took an unauthorized detour over London causing concern to civil air traffic control.

The two Eurofighter warplanes on QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) reached the Soviet-designed cargo plane (registration YL-RAA) on its way to Birmingham airport and forced it to land at Stansted airport.

Interestingly, the pilot of the lead RAF Typhoon (radio callsign “L9T47”) which intercepted the Latvian plane (callsign MLA1605) radioed warning the three-man crew on board the foreign plane to listen to military instructions or risk being ‘shot down’.

Here’s the audio recorded on a VHF frequency.

listen to ‘RAF jets force Latvian Cargo Plane to land at Stansted Airport.’ on audioBoom

Click here if you can’t see the audio player above.

You can clear hear the pilot say:

“MLA1605 from the L9T47, I’m instructed by Her Majesty’s government of the UK to warn you if you do not respond you will be shot down”

This is how real interceptions work.

About David Cenciotti
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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

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10 Comments

  1. That’s that the point, this is an unauthorized plane flying across the UK-either respond or be shot down.

    • Thats the thing though, even though its a very small percentage it happens from time to time, weather its a Lativian cargo plane or a TopGear presenter in a balloon flying near an airport. The normal procedure is to ascertain what is going on , divert other aircraft and then take appropriate measures – usually a fine, depending on why it occurred. This was clearly a provocation to the Russians.

      • rowland, you are another one who forgets very easily that 911 was perpetrated by civilian passenger planes. so any aircraft that violates sovereign airspace is to be treated as hostile until it is proven they are not.that’s how it works. whether you think it is handled dreadfully or not.but i guess you were in your crib about the time of that attack. so you know little about it.

      • Good grief, Roland, you need to get out more if you believe everything you see on an episode of Top Gear. That entire sequence was fake. I had no question to that from the moment I saw it and follow up articles prove it – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/6714162/Top-Gear-BBC-show-accused-of-faking-flying-caravan-stunt.html

        There’s just no way that the BBC would ever condone or allow for deliberate violations of aviation safety protocols.

        It simply cannot be a provocation to the Russians. Such ‘logic’ makes no sense as the aircraft involved wasn’t Russian. The only link to Russia in the incident was that made by the author of this article.

        Not sure how you can make a comment as to whether or not the RAF followed ‘normal procedure’ either – you literally have a 12 second audio clip after which you’re declaring your findings. I’m going to hazard a guess and say that was probably not the first attempt made by the Typhoon pilot or ATC to communicate with these guys.

        • Oh dear, well ive been corrected. Well sir with your vast amount of other knowledge im sure you can find some other instances where planes have been “silent” and causing a headache for traffic control. While im sure there are legitimate security concerns I was a bit shocked at the “lets blow them out of the sky” attitude from the MoD that was all.

    • Why does it matter if Latvia is part of NATO? that’s like saying no citizen of the united kingdom will commit a terrorist attack on it because it’s their own country

    • The procedure is the same regardless to whether the aircraft belongs to a NATO country or not. What if a civil plane was hijacked or a cargo plane from a NATO country was used to perform a terrorist attack?
      I always suggest people to read the story and get the facts straight before commenting.
      Thanks

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