Data from flightradar24.com shows one Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 hitting speeds of just under 700 knots (805mph) at 11.40am.<\/p>\n
When it went supersonic, the flight tracking website recorded it travelling at an altitude of around 40,000ft.<\/p>\n
![\"Path](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/skynews-typhoon-flight-path_6991674.png\")
<\/p>\n
Image:
\n Path of an RAF jet flying faster than the speed of sound. Pic: flightradar24.com<\/p>\n
People across parts of Kent<\/a><\/strong> and Essex<\/a><\/strong> reported hearing a loud bang as the fighter jet travelled at supersonic speed.<\/p>\n A Royal Air Force spokesperson said: “We can confirm that RAF Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon fighter aircraft from RAF Coningsby were launched today to investigate a civilian aircraft which was not in contact with air traffic control (ATC), communications were re-established and the aircraft was safely escorted to Stansted.”<\/p>\n Essex Police<\/a><\/strong> said: “A flight has been escorted into Stansted Airport<\/a><\/strong> after it lost contact with the ground. Our officers determined there was nothing of concern.”<\/p>\n It is not known what caused the passenger plane, which had been travelling from Nice in the south of France, to stop communicating with ATC.<\/p>\n A sonic boom is caused when planes fly faster than the speed of sound, which at ground level is about 761mph.<\/p>\n The aircraft displaces the air and creates pressure waves that become compressed and are then released in a shockwave.<\/p>\n Read more from Sky News: The RAF describes the Typhoon FGR4 as a “highly capable and agile combat aircraft” which can be “deployed in a wide range of air operations, including air policing, peacekeeping, and high-intensity conflict”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sonic boom has been reported across parts of east and southeast England after the RAF deployed aircraft…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[748,393,4884,12,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-347466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115034810253308629","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Concorde prototype breaks sound barrier<\/a>
Supersonic test flight in New Zealand<\/a>
Mystery over sonic boom solved<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n