VTOL jet over London?

So, I was sitting on the London Underground this evening and something caught my eye in the little free oily rag known as London Lite.

In it was a story of a strange jet that appeared to make a vertical take off in the Hackney area of London at approximately 8pm on the 10th March 2009. It was described as a VTOL.

There was a close up of the object, which looked very much like a jet aircraft (more like a little F-111 than a British Harrier) but the article offered no explanation.

I've tried to track the story down on the web, even here, but to no avail.

I'm posting here as I consider it to be, at this moment in time, a U.F.O. (in the literal sense).

Any ideas?

no offense but seeing a vtol craft in (or near) london doesn't seem very ground breaking to me.

its a huge city and who knows what military procedure they might of had going on that day; perhaps an urban warfare procedure.

that raises other questions though...

The London Lite have a website I would contact them and get some background on the story that they published.

www.thelondonlite.co.uk...

If you get anything post it as it will be interesting to read..

thanks!

STOls certainly do fly in and out of Docklands. They however, are purely civilian in nature. There is no way a military aircraft would be allowed to fly so low or land within London unless of some kind of real emergency.

London has, like all major cities a strictly enforced code covering its' airspace. Having said that, i have a feeling the armed forces would hardly likely be willing to come out and admit that, one of their aircraft had problems and was forced to land and then take off again in such circumstances.

If you have the date and time you could always try contacting the civil aviation authorities and ask did they have any *unusual traffic* at that particular location. I'm not sure how far you would get, but it might be worth a go.




[edit on 11-3-2009 by FireMoon]

Are you serious? Can you honestly imagine some wacky airforce thing where they land jets in the middle of the city for no good reason? Absolutely no way..I hate it when people throw out these off the cuff comments without thinking it thru. Unless you can cite examples of this happening, Im betting you cannot.

Originally posted by zetamafia911
no offense but seeing a vtol craft in (or near) london doesn't seem very ground breaking to me.

its a huge city and who knows what military procedure they might of had going on that day; perhaps an urban warfare procedure.

that raises other questions though...

reply to post by nosmokinggun


Yes. I did visit it in the hope they would have an on-line archive but to no avail.

I'll try the long-handed approach when I return from work.

someone i know saw it said it looked more like a rocket than a plane.
and no-way do vtols take off and land in the middle of London!

I actually witnessed what has been claimed to be a VTOL while cycling down Hackney Road. I thought it was a rocket at the time and pulled to the side of the road and managed to get a photograph. Its not the best photograph you'll see its not a fake!

I witnessed the rocket launch at 18:15 and not 8pm as stated.