Here's an unusual one for your midday #PhoonFriday...
Why do aircraft practice diverting into civilian airfields?

One of our Typhoons diverted into @ABZ_Airport earlier this week. Everything's explained in your Friday #MegaThread!

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Our Typhoons & Poseidon regularly practise landings at civilian airports nearby.

Prior to every flight our pilots plan several diversion airfields in the event of the unexpected - our aircraft are some of the most advanced platforms in the world, afterall!

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Much like the warning symbols on your car dashboard, if a warning caption appears the pilot must decide whether to continue with the sortie, return to base, or land nearby.

We don't have the luxury of pulling into the hard shoulder on the motorway and calling a mechanic!

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Often the aircraft can recover back to RAF Lossiemouth where our fantastic engineers and technicians can investigate any faults and fix them in time for the next sortie.

But sometimes it's safer and lower risk to land nearby... it all depends on the situation!

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One of our Typhoons diverted into @ABZ_Airport this week after having some technical issues in the air.

To expedite the diversion our Typhoon set its 'squawk', a four-digit octal code broadcast from the aircraft, to 7700 which stands for 'General Emergency'.

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Setting a squawk of 7700 isn't uncommon in these situations and is simply a precaution.

The word 'emergency' can sometimes worry those who are unfamiliar with aviation, but these procedures ensure the safe recovery of any aircraft with problems in the air.

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Our Typhoon landed safely at Aberdeen Airport and a team of technicians was dispatched to check the jet.

Once the Typhoon was checked over, the pilot flew back to RAF Lossiemouth.

Any questions about diversions? Or maybe about the Typhoon in general?

Ask below!

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Photos by:

Donald Douglas
Darrell Benns
Steve Simpson
Michael Alexander
Alan Paterson

We're really lucky to have a fantastic community of enthusiasts who regularly tag us in their photos - if you have some of our aircraft please do the same!