Low flying B1s in 1999
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Discussion

Pipster1969

Original Poster:

698 posts

197 months

Tuesday 7th January 2014
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I just found these old clippings i kept from 1999 which i thought i'd post. At the time it was terrifying, the windows were shaking and as i didn't have my glasses on all i could see out of the window were flickering orange lights, the engines sounded like they were struggling and kept cutting out. My flatmate came running in shouting about us being under attack! Any ideas what might have been going on, no way were they 7000ft up, more like a 1000ft?





Ginetta G15 Girl

3,220 posts

213 months

Tuesday 7th January 2014
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One of the a/c returning to Fairford dropped an inadvertent boom getting the height off after staying above the London TMA.

Pipster1969

Original Poster:

698 posts

197 months

Tuesday 7th January 2014
quotequote all
Was that in English confused? Wow, I have no idea what your answer means...any chance of it in words I might understand, I think I've just realised I know less about aircraft than I thought?

Mister V

1,106 posts

229 months

Tuesday 7th January 2014
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I think that translates to " one of them went supersonic by accident whilst dropping altitude after passing over controlled airspace"

Feel free to correct me though.

Ginetta G15 Girl

3,220 posts

213 months

Tuesday 7th January 2014
quotequote all
One of the B1Bs inbound to Fairford (where it took off from) had to come over the top of the controlled airspace around London (Heathrow and Gatwick) so it had to stay high. When it came to descend, in order to get the height off it inadvertently went supersonic and dropped a sonic boom over S E England.

Pipster1969

Original Poster:

698 posts

197 months

Tuesday 7th January 2014
quotequote all
Ahh, I can tell you it's not a good way to be woken up at 02:30. Was this common knowledge as they seemed a bit reluctant to answer at the time, also, why would the engines sound like they were cutting out, I remember the orange glow dimming and then getting brighter and the noise was like a stutter, scary stuff?

Edited by Pipster1969 on Tuesday 7th January 22:56

Ginetta G15 Girl

3,220 posts

213 months

Tuesday 7th January 2014
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Military Jet Noise = The Sound of Freedom! wink

FourWheelDrift

92,237 posts

313 months

Tuesday 7th January 2014
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Kosovo part of the Yugoslav wars was March 1999 to June, so April 1999 fits. They had B2s and B-52 involved maybe the B1s were reserve, or backup.

Oh just managed to read the clip, one B1 flying low. Perhaps he was lost and was trying to read the road signs.

Edited by FourWheelDrift on Tuesday 7th January 23:04

markmullen

15,877 posts

263 months

Tuesday 7th January 2014
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Ginetta G15 Girl said:
One of the a/c returning to Fairford dropped an inadvertent boom getting the height off after staying above the London TMA.
Awesome, bet that was popular.