Sonic Boom Heard Across East England as RAF Jet Scrambled A Royal Air Force jet was scrambled to intercept an aircraft that wasn’t responding to traffic control on Tuesday, breaking the sound barrier and shocking people across the East of England with a sonic boom. According to the RAF, the Typhoon jet established communications on reaching the civilian aircraft and escorted it to a nearby airport. “RAF Typhoon aircraft were scrambled on a Quick Reaction Alert operation today after a civilian aircraft lost comms in UK Airspace,” a brief statement from the RAF on Jan. 12 said. “Our jets went supersonic to reach the aircraft quickly. The aircraft was intercepted and comms re-established.”