Low flying B1s in 1999
Discussion
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?




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.
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
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.
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
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? 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? 