Travelling experiences with armed soldiers and guards

[jb747]

We had a disruptive passenger on a flight to LA. She was a PITA, but that was about the extent of it. Nevertheless, she was met by a platoon of M16 wielding police when the door opened.

Sub-machine guns were regularly on display in the hands of policemen (and women) at LHR.

And at another major airport, there were trios of police/soldiers. One policeman and two soldiers. The police SMG was loaded, but the soldiers' rifles weren't (though they were carrying the ammunition).

 

[azza007]

I was in Paris recently in November for my 40th.
Took a taxi from one hotel to another one I was only staying at for the night.
On the way noticed some police/guards on corners with machine guns.
Checked into the hotel and due to being early the room wast't ready so went for a walk.
Got to a corner and could go any further due to police and barricades so turned around and took the long way round and noticed more police and barricades.
Next morning after having room service breakfast I went for a walk. The police and barricaded still there so when I get back to the hotel I asked hotel reception about it.
Turns out the residence for the French President was around the corner from the hotel

 

[Hvr]

Nevertheless, she was met by a platoon of M16 wielding police when the door opened.

So a Captain's call that was welcomed by all (except her ).

 

[Franky]

Actually, another one comes to mind, I think it was February 2019 during a short visit to New York. Down at Battery Point there was a mobile Police Command Post where the folks line up to get the ferries to the various islands. Further around to the right, alongside the Jewsih Holocaust Centre, there were two Police cars also on standby. We were told they were there permanently.

 

[dajop]

Way back in December 2022, oh hang on I mean this morning and yesterday, we were in Strasbourg looking at Christmas markets. Saw many police in groups of three patrolling the different Christmas markets - 2 with visible hand guns and a third with what I assume was a sub-machine gun of some sorts. Also a few army patrols with visible sub-machine guns.

 

[randompunter]

Working in a hospital in south London in 2006 the local area had issues with gang violence. On Halloween there was an incident involving an Uzi at a nearby nightclub in Camberwell. The guys who got shot up and survived (I think one died) were held under police guard at the hospital and there were police with SMGs at the main entrance and on the ward. Was a bit strange to me as I had only seen the typical bobby with the whacking stick up to that point.

 

[Mr H]

I have had armed guards twice - once travelling by car from Aswan to Luxor, part of the journey required an armed guard in the front seat with a big rifle - and once touring the Casbah in Algiers and the guide hired an armed policeman to accompany us. I also remember travelling by train through Songkhla in Thailand and armed people in a variety of uniforms came though the train searching for something.

 

[Scarlett]

We had a disruptive passenger on a flight to LA. She was a PITA, but that was about the extent of it. Nevertheless, she was met by a platoon of M16 wielding police when the door opened.

About 15 or so years back I had the interesting experience of ordering RAF QRA aircraft to scramble due to an illegal interference message being received from an inbound transatlantic flight. Might have been a United flight but my memory fails me. A person was trying to enter the coughpit.

That aircraft was met over the UK south western approaches by armed fighters. Don’t know what happened once it landed but I’d hazard a guess something similar to what @jb747 described.

It all calmed down relatively quickly and a follow up message was received noting that: ‘a woman had been secured in a first class seat and was clutching her bible closely’.

I should also note that as a foreigner, as soon as I’d taken the initial actions I was replaced in the seat by one of my local colleagues. I was however, allowed to coordinate intercepts on Russian long range bombers, usually Bears but sometimes a Blackjack or two, who occasionally came stooging around to the North Sea or Baltic, but that kind of fun is off topic for this thread. (generic image from wiki…)

 

[RooFlyer]

I should also note that as a foreigner, as soon as I’d taken the initial actions I was replaced in the seat by one of my local colleagues. I was however, allowed to coordinate intercepts on Russian long range bombers, usually Bears but sometimes a Blackjack or two, who occasionally came stooging around to the North Sea or Baltic, but that kind of fun is off topic for this thread. (generic image from wiki…)

But fascinating if you can squeeze it into another (or new) thread . I gather you were in ATC. Why would you be replaced 'as a foreigner'?

 

[Scarlett]

But fascinating if you can squeeze it into another (or new) thread . I gather you were in ATC. Why would you be replaced 'as a foreigner'?

Not ATC, but a little bit closer to the direct application of air power. We worked very closely with ATC, especially in scenarios such as the above, both for the national security elements and for the NATO sovereignty missions. “What air defence doing?” Well, this kind of stuff…

The Russian long range aviation flights were not flight planned, (well I’m sure they were internally to the Russian Air Force, but not flight planned through the international flight information regions), nor did they speak to anyone managing the international airspace they flew through via radio and they didn’t squawk. They were at least smart enough to generally fly around FL250 which was below the enroute airways and not much of a problem well out in international airspace, but as they came closer to various coastlines they could conflict with climbing and descending RPT traffic. After being detected on primary radar or via other means, fighters would be scrambled to shadow them, providing a direct NATO response, but also as a safety measure. The fighters would squawk so that the position of the aircraft they were trailing could be seen by the international ATC community.

I recall one event where two Bears had launched out of north western Russia. They must have flown north toward the pole and then south, well off the coast of Norway, because they continued all the way down into the North Sea and flew a counter clockwise pattern therein. At one point there were a pair of RAF fighters, probably Typhoons after they’d newly picked up the Q role, an RAF tanker, a pair of Dutch F-16s and a German F-4 shadowing the bombers. As the package headed back north the various nations fighter escorts gradually headed back home and handed over responsibility for shadowing to a pair of newly launched Norwegian F-16s.

All of this was being coordinated between ops centres in the various countries and the ‘radar picture’ of what was occurring was shared between the NATO members via datalink for combined situational awareness.

As for the foreigner thing: as an Australian on exchange there were certain rules of engagement limits, so for national security operations (when activated) there had to be a Brit national ‘in the chair’. If you think about the concept of armed fighter aircraft being scrambled to intercept passenger aircraft you can probably understand why.

Sorry mods if too far off topic. I don’t think this would really justify a separate thread for one post.

 

[Franky]

Not ATC, but a little bit closer to the direct application of air power. We worked very closely with ATC, especially in scenarios such as the above, both for the national security elements and for the NATO sovereignty missions. “What air defence doing?” Well, this kind of stuff…

The Russian long range aviation flights were not flight planned, (well I’m sure they were internally to the Russian Air Force, but not flight planned through the international flight information regions), nor did they speak to anyone managing the international airspace they flew through via radio and they didn’t squawk. They were at least smart enough to generally fly around FL250 which was below the enroute airways and not much of a problem well out in international airspace, but as they came closer to various coastlines they could conflict with climbing and descending RPT traffic. After being detected on primary radar or via other means, fighters would be scrambled to shadow them, providing a direct NATO response, but also as a safety measure. The fighters would squawk so that the position of the aircraft they were trailing could be seen by the international ATC community.

I recall one event where two Bears had launched out of north western Russia. They must have flown north toward the pole and then south, well off the coast of Norway, because they continued all the way down into the North Sea and flew a counter clockwise pattern therein. At one point there were a pair of RAF fighters, probably Typhoons after they’d newly picked up the Q role, an RAF tanker, a pair of Dutch F-16s and a German F-4 shadowing the bombers. As the package headed back north the various nations fighter escorts gradually headed back home and handed over responsibility for shadowing to a pair of newly launched Norwegian F-16s.

All of this was being coordinated between ops centres in the various countries and the ‘radar picture’ of what was occurring was shared between the NATO members via datalink for combined situational awareness.

As for the foreigner thing: as an Australian on exchange there were certain rules of engagement limits, so for national security operations (when activated) there had to be a Brit national ‘in the chair’. If you think about the concept of armed fighter aircraft being scrambled to intercept passenger aircraft you can probably understand why.

Sorry mods if too far off topic. I don’t think this would really justify a separate thread for one post.

Job well done. Meanwhile, back home we in the RAN were trying to track their nuclear submarines doing the same thing in our waters…