'We'll abandon Christmas dinner if we get a call'

Pilots and ground crew are ready to abandon their Christmas dinners at a moment's notice for emergencies, staff at RAF Coningsby have told the BBC.

Teams on Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) at the station can be scrambled to respond to emergencies including aircraft losing communications, terrorism threats or foreign aircraft entering UK airspace.

There will be two pilots and teams of support staff on QRA during the Christmas period.

Technician Bradley Fieldhouse said he "feels better about" working on Christmas Day because colleagues with young families could spend it together.

Wing Cdr Andy Shaw, of 29 Squadron which trains Typhoon pilots, said QRA is in "extremely high readiness where we sit with armed aircraft 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, to protect the UK and its interests."

He said: "It includes Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, the works. We're always there ready to go at a moment's notice.

"We defend from really any threat. That can be from light aircraft, counter-terrorism type work, to a 9/11 scenario or the more traditional threat from long range aviation from Russia.

"We'd look to protect the UK from any airborne threat, and that would usually start from knowing an aircraft is airborne and we don't know what it's doing. That could be simple as lost comms. We'd look to launch to investigate to find out what's going on and deal with it appropriately."

The BBC has been told pilots have to sleep in multiple layers of uniform to speed up the process of taking flight if they are called out at night.

But what about staff working on the ground?

"It is all happy and cheery," Bradley Fieldhouse, an RAF technician, said about his QRA shifts on Christmas Day after working three of the last four.

"Everyone's in the same situation, everyone's away from their family so we try and make it as happy as possible.

"We could be halfway through our Christmas dinner, and we get a call, that's just the way it goes unfortunately," the weapons specialist added.

"Personally I have no kids, so although it's sad to be away from family for Christmas I know that someone's going to have a better Christmas with their kids. That makes me feel a bit better about it all."

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