A loud roar heard over Hull and much of the East Riding on Monday afternoon has been identified as military aircraft activity, not a weather phenomenon as some speculated. British and American jets flew over the area from bases in the East of England.
The first aircraft was a McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, which took off from RAF Mildenhall at approximately 3.45pm and flew in a looping pattern covering Market Weighton and Pocklington. Two similar jets had been spotted over Hull three weeks earlier, having departed from RAF Lakenheath.
In addition to the American jets, a British Eurofighter Typhoon FGR.4 conducted a flight from RAF Coningsby to the North York Moors. It flew west of Hull on the outbound leg and returned over Hedon.
The renewed military activity comes amid heightened tensions between NATO and Russia over the possibility of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. The F-15 Eagle is a twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter weighing 20 tonnes with a top speed of 3,018 km/h.
