RAF Typhoons take part in hijack exercise

Exercise Night Star saw RAF Typhoons, based at RAF Coningsby, scrambled to escort a passenger aircraft to Heathrow.

As part of the hijacking exercise, the jets intercepted a British Airways 160-seater plane and escorted it to Heathrow airport. 

Once landed, Specialist Units from the Met Police met the aircraft and responded to the simulation.

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The exercise is designed to test the skills of police officers and staff from different units - including hostage negotiators, investigators, and firearms officers.

RAF Typhoons are constantly on standby to respond to any potential threat in or near UK airspace. 

They can be called upon to rapidly react to belligerent, unknown or non-communicating aircraft.

Wing Commander Wilkinson, who coordinated the RAF element from the passenger aircraft, said: "Exercise Night Star has provided the rare opportunity for a fully joint and multi-agency end to end assurance of the UK’s Air Defence and Counter Terrorism response.

"Each participating unit has used the exercise to hone their skills and improve their procedures to continue to ensure aviation safety."

The exercise was not carried out in response to any specific threat or intelligence, and forms part of a regular training programme.