The reason why RAF jets have been seen over County Durham this week – the Northern Echo

On Wednesday (23 October), several Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft were seen over the skies of the region. Their flight path shows that they came from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, flew through North Yorkshire and into Teesside, turned into County Durham and returned.

Eurofighter Typhoon (Image: SIMON MCCABE) While the exciting sight of seeing the RAF aircraft was brilliant for many, the reason for the Eurofighter Typhoons may have been a bit of an anti-climax because the aircraft were conducting standard training during the day.

According to Flight Radar, the Eurofighter, which was seen over County Durham, took off from RAF Coningsby at around 15:05 before landing again in Lincolnshire at around 16:20.

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According to the RAF, standard training exercises are conducted daily.

The RAF aircraft from Coningsby were joined by several aircraft that flew over from RAF Leeming, who are currently running a 24-hour training exercise which sees aircraft fly at night in North Yorkshire.

So what is the Eurofighter Typhoon?

According to the RAF: “The Typhoon FGR.Mk 4 is a highly capable and highly agile multi-role combat aircraft capable of being deployed for the full range of air operations, including air policing, peace support and high intensity conflict. Originally deployed in the air-to-air role as the Typhoon F.Mk 2, the aircraft now has a powerful, precision multi-role capability as the FGR4.”

The RAF went on to add: “Although the Typhoon has flown precision attack missions in all of its combat deployments to date, its most essential role remains the provision of Quick Response Alert (QRA) for UK and Falkland Islands airspace. The units have also reinforced NATO air defenses in the Baltic and Black Sea regions.”