Air India plane loses ATC contact over Hungary, escorted by fighter jets
MUMBAI: An Air India Ahmedabad-London flight lost contact with air traffic controls over Hungarian airspace, leading to a fighter jet scrambling after it.
It had 249 passengers and crew on board.
In military parlance, scrambling is the act of quickly getting military aircraft airborne to react to, intercept and escort unknown, possibly hostile, aircraft.
The jets escorted the Air India flight till it regained communication and it subsequently landed safely at the London Heathrow airport.
"AI 171 Ahmedabad – London - Newark flight after departing as per schedule at 0700 AM this morning lost communication with local ATC while flying over Hungary for a short while. The flight landed safely at Heathrow at 1106 local time as per schedule," said a statement from the airline.
"The airline is enquiring into the incident," it added.
Last month, a Jet Airways Mumbai-London flight lost communications with Germany's air traffic controls on ground while flying over the country's airspace, leading the German air force to scramble two jets after it.
In a statement, Jet said communications were restored "within a few minutes" and the flight "with 330 guests and 15 crew subsequently landed at London without incident,"
Jet reported the matter to the DGCA and is also investigating the incident.
It had 249 passengers and crew on board.
In military parlance, scrambling is the act of quickly getting military aircraft airborne to react to, intercept and escort unknown, possibly hostile, aircraft.
The jets escorted the Air India flight till it regained communication and it subsequently landed safely at the London Heathrow airport.
"AI 171 Ahmedabad – London - Newark flight after departing as per schedule at 0700 AM this morning lost communication with local ATC while flying over Hungary for a short while. The flight landed safely at Heathrow at 1106 local time as per schedule," said a statement from the airline.
"The airline is enquiring into the incident," it added.
Last month, a Jet Airways Mumbai-London flight lost communications with Germany's air traffic controls on ground while flying over the country's airspace, leading the German air force to scramble two jets after it.
In a statement, Jet said communications were restored "within a few minutes" and the flight "with 330 guests and 15 crew subsequently landed at London without incident,"
Jet reported the matter to the DGCA and is also investigating the incident.
