Gripens Intercept Passenger Plane
Szöveg: hungariandefence.com / MoD Press Office | 2012. szeptember 9. 6:02Scrambling from Kecskemét, two Gripens of the Hungarian Air Force successfully intercepted a Boeing-738 (737-800) passenger airplane arriving from Turkey in the afternoon of September 6. (Press release)
Prior to the incident, while flying in the Romanian airspace, the passenger plane had not established radio contact, so the NATO Combined Air Operations Center Five (CAOC-5) in Italy first placed the Hungarian fighter jets on quick reaction alert (QRA) and then ordered an Alpha Scramble.
The JAS-39 Gripens took off at 12:38, intercepted the passenger plane in a couple of minutes and escorted it towards the northwestern boundary of the Hungarian airspace. One minute before leaving the airspace, the passenger plane eventually contacted the Hungarian air traffic control (ATC), then left the country before 13:00.
The two fighters were scrambled in the interest of protecting the Hungarian airspace and guaranteeing the security of Hungarian citizens.
Photo: Archive
