This is not an article that I ever thought I would feel compelled to write! However, given the confusion over a photograph chosen in a regional English paper, apparently it’s a conversation that we need to have.

Let’s start by working out what went wrong.

Estonia, 2019

On the 25th of June in 2019, the British Ministry of Defense released a news story titled RAF Typhoons scrambled twice in one day to intercept Russian military aircraft.

At the time, four Eurofighter Typhoons from the RAF’s XI squadron were stationed at Ämari Air Base in Estonia, which happens to be my most local airport, although sadly I have not been invited to visit yet.  Operation Azotize was a part of NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission, with the Typhoons taking over from the German Air Force for a four-month period. There was a lot of Russian activity over the Baltic at the time and that day started with an unidentified aircraft flying down the Baltic from the East. The pilot on Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) duty explained that they’d been asked to identify and shadow the aircraft:

We identified the contact as an AN-12 (Cub) military transport and shadowed it in a westerly direction. Once the task was completed we were cleared to leave the contact and conduct training in segregated Estonian airspace.

However, later that day, there was a second alert: three contacts transiting from north-west Russia to Kaliningrad. Another pilot explains:

We intercepted the aircraft off the west coast of Estonia, identified the contacts as an IL-22 (Coot B) military transport and two SU-27 Flanker fighters. The contacts were shadowed southward before handing them over to Swedish Quick Reaction Alert aircraft, two SAAB Gripens.

I would have thought that “shadowed” meant following quietly from behind but the headline makes it clear that it was an intercept. That same day, a set of photographs taken by the pilots was released by the Ministry of Defense.

One shows a Sukhoi Su-27 number 93, with Cyrillic text on the side and a red star on the tail, identifying it undeniably as a Russian Air Force aircraft. The photo is clearly taken from the point of view of the cockpit of the Typhoon.

The caption gives the context:

Image of a Russian SU-27 aircraft, along side an RAF Typhoon, taken today (25/06/2019). A Royal Air Force Typhoon from No. 11 Squadron (RAF Coningsby), currently based out of Ämari Air Base, Estonia as part of 121 Expeditionary Air Wing (EAW) intercepts a Russian SU-27. Royal Air Force (RAF) Typhoon fighter jets operating from Ämari Air Base in Estonia launched twice on Tuesday 25th of June to intercept two Russian military transport aircraft and two Russian flanker fighters that were flying close to Estonian airspace.

The photograph is released under the Crown Copyright News/Editoral license, which means it is free for use for illustrating reports and articles that are newsworthy or of a general public interest. In other words, you can’t use the image to decorate your website but you can use it if you are writing about the event (like I am). The photographer is listed simply as Royal Air Force. It is tagged as an SU-27, of course, but also as Eurofighter Typhoon, since that’s the important context of this image from the MoD point of view.

I suspect you can guess where this is going.

Thomas Newdick (@CombatAir) shared the photograph on Twitter, identifying the Sukhoi as a Su-27P FLANKER-B version which is based in Kaliningrad with the 698th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment. It is distinctive because has a name under the wing: Aleksandr Klubov.

The same photograph was  included in an August 2019 article by the Ministry of Defence, which identifies it as a Russian SU-27 aircraft alongside RAF Typhoon and then again in an RAF article dated 3 September 2019 titled [RAF Typhoons complete NATO air policing mission in Estonia.

The photograph was used in the British press over the same time period and each time credited as “Ministry of Defence via Getty Images”. These articles all reference Russian jets but are focused on the RAF and the Eurofighter Typhoons involved in the NATO Baltic Policing initiative. The word “intercept” appears in every article.

I’ve noticed before that Getty Images and other stock image sites include free-to-use photographs such as Crown Copyright images, with the caveat (where necessary) that they are for editorial use only. News desks have subscriptions to these stock image libraries and so it is much faster for them to use pay a fee to use the image from the library than to track it down for themselves. In this case, I was unable to find the photograph on Getty but I did find it on Alamy. The tags on this image include RAF, Typhoon, Su-27, and intercept.

The image was released once more in an MoD collection called “Best of Defence Imagery 2019”. And there it stayed until this incident on the 5th of February, 2024.

Northern England, 2024

An Airbus A320neo departed Oslo, Norway normally as SAS Scandanavian Airlines Connect flight SK-4609 for a passenger flight to Manchester, England, with an estimated flight time of two hours and fifteen minutes.

While in the cruise over the North Sea at FL380 (38,000 feet), the flight crew stopped responding to Air Traffic Control while continuing towards Manchester.

Two Eurofighter Typhoons were scrambled from RAF Coningsby to intercept the SAS flight, a standard response to an aircraft which is not communicating. Meanwhile, the A320neo had entered a holding pattern at the coast near Newcastle upon Tyne, still without establishing contact with Air Traffic Control. There are specific transponder codes that flight crew use for emergencies: 7500 for hijackings, 7600 for radio failure and 7700 as a general distress call. However, the A320neo was still broadcasting its originally assigned transponder code.

The flight crew finally re-established communications and the two Typhoons escorted the A320neo to Manchester, where it landed safely about half an hour past its scheduled arrival time. Emergency services surrounded the aircraft; however, it was soon clear that there was no emergency. The aircraft was allowed to the gate and the passengers deplaned.

Manchester Airport announced that they had put on extra staff to support any passengers who may need it, presumably as a result of looking out the window and suddenly seeing an RAF fighter jet alongside.

I probably would have died of excitement.

Scandinavian Airlines explained that there was a “brief and temporary loss of communication” before reiterating that there was never any danger to the flight or the passengers.

About two hours later, the Airbus departed with a new load of passengers for the return flight to Oslo.

I haven’t found anything further that explains why the flight crew were out of contact for over 30 minutes other than one reference to a technical fault.

However, it seems someone at the CAA was having a very bad day, because for the first time ever, the pilot was prosecuted for not maintaining radio communication with air traffic control during a flight. As the captain of the flight had already reported the circumstance, he pleaded guilty to the charge.

From the CAA’s release:

The regulator’s Investigations and Enforcement Team found that on a SAS Connect flight from Oslo to Manchester with 58 passengers, [the captain] failed to establish two-way radio communication with the appropriate traffic control unit, in contravention of the law.

The incident was reported by NATS after a more than 30-minute loss of radio communications with [the captain], triggering the declaration of a security incident. Two RAF Typhoons were launched to intercept the aircraft.

The plane was escorted to Manchester Airport, where it landed and went to a remote stand and police boarded the aircraft.

The captain of the flight was fined £4,511 for the offence.

Here’s where it all goes wrong (other than for the captain, for whom it had already all gone wrong).

Most of the UK press used generic stock images of an SAS aircraft or the tower at Manchester Airport. However, someone at Cheshire Live, presumably as excited as I was by the idea of the RAF Typhoons flying alongside the airliner, chose to lead with a more exciting image as an illustration of what happened over Newcastle that day. Sure enough, here we have the 2019 image which no doubt came up on a search of “RAF” “Typhoon” and “intercept”.

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Pilot fined after RAF Typhoons intercept flight bound for Manchester Airport

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Note here that the image credit matches exactly those credits given by news media in 2019, even though the photograph itself no longer appears to be listed on Getty. All I can think is that somehow, someone found this image on a search of “RAF Typhoons intercept”

Now it is easy enough to understand how someone could get excited: its a great photograph. I understand that I am on shaky ground here, having also mislabled a photograph of an F-18 as a Eurofighter Typhoon when I attended the Baltic International Air Show, so believe me, I have some sympathy.

That said, I’m not paid to source photography for the news and besides, I was kindly informed of my error within three hours of publishing. Within a week, I’d eaten crow in a follow-up article which has since become one of the most visited on Fear of Landing.

But honestly, I find it more striking that not one person at the Cheshire News noticed that it was a Russian Air Force aircraft, complete with red star on the tail? I mean, it requires less than a minute of actual focus on the photograph to come up with a long list of how it cannot possibly depict an Airbus A320neo on the way to Manchester being intercepted by the Royal Air Force.

Part 3, A Practical Guide

So, in the interests of being helpful, here are some top tips in case you discover yourself in need of being able to tell a Russian Air Force Sukhoi Su-27 from a Royal Air Force Typhoon in a hurry.

The RAF have a fine web page about the Typhoon FGR.MK4 with an interactive 3D image that you can interact with.

Note the Delta wings the almost rectangular fuselage with the engines at the rear and the single swept tail.

Now let’s look again at the Su-27.

It is quickly recogniseable by its long drooping nose, twin tail fins and red star on the tail, not to mention the surprising lack of a Royal Air Force roundel on the side.

Conclusion

Thanks to the NATO Baltic Air Policing, we actually have an image from 2014 of a Typhoon and a Sukhoi side by side. So if you still aren’t sure you can tell the difference, then maybe study this photograph:

In this image of two fighter jets, again courtesy of the MoD, the Russian Air Force SU-27 Flanker aircraft is the closer one, banking away, as the Royal Air Force Typhoon flies menacingly in the background.

I sure hope that’s helpful! Although I’m glad to have been of service, I do hope this doesn’t turn into an ongoing series.

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