Category Archives: Royal Air Force

British F-35 jet crashes into Mediterranean

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Defence secretary says F-35 flights will continue, after pilot of RAF jet from HMS Queen Elizabeth carrier ejects during routine activity

A British F-35 pilot flying from the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier had to eject during a routine operation over the Mediterranean, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.

The pilot was picked up but the £100m stealth jet crashed into the sea during the incident, which took place at about 10am UK time. No other vessels or aircraft were involved, defence sources said.

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RAF intelligence base linked to US drone strike on Iranian general Qassem Soleimani

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Research concludes it ‘was probable’ that Menwith Hill was used to assist in the controversial assassination

Campaigners have called on ministers to explain whether the secretive Menwith Hill intelligence base in Yorkshire is involved in recent drone strike assassinations, after the publication of a report that raises questions about UK involvement in US attacks.

The research concludes it “was probable” that Iranian general Qassem Suleimani was killed in January last year using information obtained from the British site, essentially an outpost of the US National Security Agency (NSA).

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Gauntlet to reach Kabul airport taking evacuees 24 to 48 hours

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Fear of Taliban roadblocks slows flow of people trying to flee Afghanistan on fifth day of RAF airlift operation

People fleeing the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan for safety in Britain are taking 24 to 48 hours to make it safely across Kabul for evacuation – and many have turned back home, scared to travel, defence sources have acknowledged.

Difficulties in getting the remaining Britons, Afghans and others to the airport became the most significant hurdle on the fifth day of the RAF airlift amid renewed speculation over whether it will last to the end of the month as planned.

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Asylum seeker housing conditions under scrutiny at third ex-military site

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Allegations of poor conditions, poor food quality and mental health crises at RAF Coltishall in Norfolk

A third former military site being used as temporary housing for asylum seekers is facing allegations of poor conditions, poor food quality and mental health crises, it has emerged.

The Home Office has been housing asylum seekers in a former officers’ mess at RAF Coltishall, north of Norwich, since April last year. The Norfolk site has not received as much scrutiny as two similar facilities, Napier Barracks in Kent and Penally Barracks in Pembrokeshire, which have been dogged by allegations of cover-ups, poor access to healthcare and legal advice, and crowded conditions.

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Red Arrows fly over London to mark 75th anniversary of VE Day – video

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The RAF's display team colour the skies above London red, white and blue to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day. Nazi commanders surrendered to allied forces in a French schoolhouse 75 years ago on 8 May 1945, bringing the second world war in Europe to an end.

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RAF jets to roar over UK to mark 75th anniversary of VE Day

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Boris Johnson urges nation to unite in tribute as celebrations are adapted owing to Covid-19

RAF jets will roar over Britain to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, as Boris Johnson urged the nation to unite in tribute to the achievement and sacrifice of the wartime generation.

The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall will lead a two-minute silence from Scotland on a day of celebration and commemoration which also includes a “national toast”, an address by the Queen, and a nationwide sing-a-long of Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again.

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Harry Dunn lawyers say documents expose ‘scandalous’ Foreign Office cover-up

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Family of motorcyclist killed near US base to receive crucial papers after seeking review

Lawyers representing the family of 19-year-old motorcyclist Harry Dunn are poised to receive a series of crucial documents which they believe will help their legal case to expose a “scandalous cover-up” by the Foreign Office.

The development comes after documents showed that a senior Foreign Office diplomat had sent a text message to a US Embassy counterpart saying they should “feel able” to put suspect Anne Sacoolas on the next flight back to the States.

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Examining Britain’s part in the Biafran war | Letters

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Robert Bennett says no account of the war should ignore its origins in a mainly Igbo military coup in 1966. Alan Healey thinks too many people still look at Britain’s colonial past as a golden age. Judith Nicoll recalls her father, who was shot down and killed while flying food and medicines into Biafra

Frederick Forsyth (Buried for 50 years: Britain’s shameful role in Biafra, Journal, 21 January) arrived in Biafra shortly after I was evacuated in June 1967 at the start of the war, just 15 miles north of Nsukka, where I was working as a university lecturer.

No account of the Biafran war should ignore its origins in a mainly Igbo military coup in January 1966, a coup in which three Nigerian political leaders were assassinated (none of them Igbo). Among them was a man who, by popular accounts, was a modest and good politician: the prime minister, Tafawa Balewa.

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Sonic boom: loud bang that shook London caused by supersonic fighter jets

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Typhoon jets scrambled in response to plane that was not answering air traffic control

A huge bang heard across London and in Hertfordshire just after 4am on Sunday was caused by RAF jets going supersonic, the Met and the MoD said.

“Two Typhoon fighter aircraft from RAF Coningsby were scrambled at 0409 this morning, as part of the UK’s Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) procedures, after an aircraft lost communications in UK airspace,” said the Ministry of Defence. “The aircraft was intercepted and its communications were subsequently re-established. The Typhoons are returning to their base.”

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Public invited to 100-year-old Jamaican war veteran’s funeral

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Oswald Dixon served in RAF in second world war and died at care home in Salford

A care home is inviting members of the public to attend the funeral of a second world war veteran from Jamaica with no family in the UK.

Oswald Dixon died on 25 September aged 100 after living his last four years at a home for retired service personnel in Salford, Greater Manchester.

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MoD claim of one civilian death in Isis raids ridiculed

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RAF says 4,315 Isis fighters were killed or injured in airstrikes and just one civilian

The Ministry of Defence claim that the RAF killed only one civilian in thousands of airstrikes against Isis has been dismissed as ludicrous and “stretching credibility”.

According figures released by the MoD following a freedom of information request by the charity Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), the RAF strikes between 2014 and January this year killed or injured 4,315 of the group’s fighters. It said 90% of those were killed.

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Parachutists to fill skies over Normandy on 75th anniversary of D-day

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Wartime aircraft will fly in 6 June event commemorating day that turned tide of war

The skies over the UK and Normandy will be filled with wartime Dakota aircraft as hundreds of parachutists take part in a mass airdrop to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-day landings in June.

The plans, unveiled by Imperial War Museums (IWM), are part of a programme on an “unprecedented scale” for the commemoration of the greatest seaborne invasion in history, to liberate Europe from Nazi occupation, on 6 June 1944.

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Brian Grace obituary

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My father, Brian Grace, who has died aged 88, overcame early disadvantages to forge a life revolving around his family, his work as an engineering inspector, and the betting shop – not always in that order.

The son of Fred Grace, a bus driver with London Transport, and Lillian (nee Turpin), an advertising model, Brian was born in Battersea, south-west London, with disabilities that required a series of operations on his leg and foot.

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