Greater Manchester Police are investigating a hoax bomb threat to a Qatar Airways Boeing 777, which prompted Royal Air Force Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) Typhoon FGR4 to respond.
On July 25, 2026, police confirmed that the investigation into a bomb threat to a Qatar Airways Boeing 777 heading to Manchester Airport was being ‘assisted’ by a 14-year-old boy.
Typhoon FGR4, call signs RIGID 11 and RIGID 12, launched from RAF Coningsby shortly before 1800 UTC and headed south towards A7-BAJ, a Boeing 777-300ER flying QTR52N between Doha and Manchester.
The jet escorted the airliner to its destination, where it eventually landed safely and was greeted by a significant police presence.
I just arrived at MAN pic.twitter.com/yei8CZlhls
— Emily Brobin (@kippaxgirlemily) July 24, 2026
Warning fighter launches against aircraft involved in a bomb threat have become a matter of standard procedure over the past few decades, with the initial goal usually being to directly monitor the aircraft and establish greater awareness of the unfolding situation. In fact, in 2014, a Qatar Airways aircraft fell victim to a similar fraud that saw an armed typhoon response.
QRA aircraft are in principle armed, but the use of force against civilian aircraft is permitted only in extreme scenarios. The standard armament of the RAF Typhoons is a mix of Meteor radar-guided missiles and infrared-guided Advanced Short Range Air to Air Missiles (ASRAAM).
#RAF Royal Air Force – 🚨 NATO Air Policing / Quick Response Alert (QRA)
Eurofighter Typhoon FGR.4 2x#43C74C ZJ947 – RIGID 11#43C7AB ZK434 – RIGID 12
Boeing 777-300 1x#06A077 A7-BAJ – Qatar 52N
Two RAF Typhoons sortied from RAF Coningsby to intercept Qatar Airways… pic.twitter.com/O1rsJLmpqn
— Armchair Admiral 🇬🇧 (@ArmchairAdml) July 24, 2026
Manchester Airport operations director Gary Homa said: “This type of behavior is completely unacceptable. Public safety is always our top priority and all reports of this nature are taken very seriously.”
“Fraud calls can cause significant disruption, divert vital emergency service resources and cause unnecessary concern for passengers, crew and the general public. Fortunately, this incident was concluded safely, but false reports are no joke and can have serious consequences. We will always thoroughly investigate incidents of this kind and take strong action where offenses have been committed,” he added.
Police have not yet officially said whether they believe the 14-year-old boy being questioned was the person who made the hoax call, or whether they are connected to him in some other way. He was not a passenger on the plane.
Pilots aboard the Qatari flight appear to have learned of the intercept shortly before 1814 UTC, confirmed by ACARS messages to Qatar Airways operations (compiled by Airframes.io contributors).
blocked
british army
I got my TCAS RA
Waiting for INST from ATC
Footage of the interception was confirmed and filmed from the ground and then posted on social media. In the video, you can clearly see the plane’s thick contrail and two thin trails from the intercepting Typhoon.
@flightradar24 What is this? pic.twitter.com/Hfwueb81V3
— Lester🦊 (@jxshlcfc) July 24, 2026
Most airliner intercepts are somewhat routine and occur after communication between the aircraft and air traffic control is lost due to equipment failure or use of the wrong frequency. This type of intercept was so common that when a Typhoon was seen intercepting a commercial airliner, many observers assumed this was what had occurred.
Many thanks to Luke Tuffs for providing images of the Typhoon returning to Coningsby after work.
