RAF PAUSED NON-ESSENTIAL FLYING ON TYPHOONS AND HAWKS
Update (22/07/2022 22:24)
Updated statement from the Royal Air Force
After further detailed technical investigations, we are pleased to announce that the RAF Red Arrows have been cleared to resume activity immediately. Non-essential flying for Typhoon remains paused as a temporary safety precaution. This will have no impact on our national security, with our operational flight commitments to the UK and NATO being met.
Today, Friday 22nd of July 2022, the Royal Air Force has announced that it has paused all non-essential flying on the Hawks and Typhoons due to issues with their ejector seats.
According to a post on Twitter, the RAF said it had been notified of a problem that "may affect the safe operation" of ejection seats in the aircraft.
As a result, all non-essential flying has been paused as a "temporary safety precaution until the situation is better understood".
At this stage, it is unclear how long the non-essential flying pause will last and how it will affect the upcoming displays by both the RAF Typhoon Display Team and the RAF Red Arrows.
The Red Arrows were due to perform a flypast at the Farnborough International Airshow today as well as displays at the Making Waves Festival in Scotland and Bray Air Festival in Ireland this weekend.
Statement by the RAF spokesperson:
“We have been notified of a technical issue which may affect the safe operation of our ejector seats in Typhoon and Red Arrows aircraft. We have paused non-essential flying as a temporary safety precaution until the situation is better understood.”
"This is a temporary precaution to maximise safety while our engineers carry out a technical investigation. Operational and essential flying will continue, so we will meet all our commitments to protecting UK and NATO airspace.”
